ARLINGTON, TX — Prior to Texas State's 4-0 win at UTA on Saturday afternoon, there had been 17 no-hitters thrown by Bobcat softball student-athletes in the program's history.
May 7, 2022 will be added to the Texas State (35-17, 19-8) record books as the day the first no-hitter was thrown by multiple Bobcat softball student-athletes.
Jessica Mullins, who threw the program's last no-hitter on Feb. 21, 2021 against Abeline Christian, started Saturday's contest and tossed eight pitches to three batters in a scoreless first inning. Karsen Piece (7-4) entered the pitching circle to start the top of the second and went the rest of the way.
Mullins and Pierce combined to strikeout four batters, did not issue a walk, hit or run on just 64 total pitches in seven innings. Pierce faced one over the minimum in her six innings of work as the Mavericks' lone base runner in the game reached on a one-out fielding error in the bottom of the fifth.
Pierce responded to the baserunner by striking out the next batter on three pitches and then inducing a flyball to
Anna Jones in right field to end the inning.
"Mullins was definitely attacking (the strike zone) with her riseball and UTA was being really aggressive by swinging at a lot of her pitches, so she could work her zone a little bit more," said senior catcher
Caitlyn Rogers. "Karsen's dropball was really, really good today. She kept working her counts really well and capitalized on those opportunities with them being as aggressively as they were."
"I felt really good warming up and just felt great all weekend," said Pierce, who has a five-inning no-hitter under her collegiate belt, too, after accomplishing the feat at Southern University on Feb. 20, 2021. "To come in after (Mullins) and both of us do really good, it was just a great weekend overall."
The Texas State offense gave Pierce more than enough runs in the top of the seventh, when the Bobcats scored four runs on three hits and one Maverick error.
Kylie George broke the 0-0 tie with a two-out infield single to score
Caitlyn Rogers, who drew the game's first walk with one out in the inning, from third.
Cat Crenek came home on the play, too, as a result of a throwing error.
Hannah Earls made it a four-run game with a two-out, two-run single to left field in the next at bat.
George, after pushing her team ahead in the top of the seventh, was the hero in the bottom half as well as the senior outfield was credited with all three putouts, including a highlight reel diving catch in the right-centerfield gap to seal the team's combined no-hitter.
"I was more locked in than I had ever been in my entire life considering this is my last regular-season conference game," George said. "I really just wanted to seal the deal for Karsen in the circle and do it for my girl."
With the regular season now concluded, Texas State, which is currently riding the nation's second-longest winning streak at 15 consecutive games, will now turn its attention to the 2022 Sun Belt Conference Softball Championship tournament, which begins on Tuesday, May 10 at 10 a.m. CT.
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