AUSTIN – Texas State softball finished the 2023 season with a 35-25-1 record after a split day in the Austin Regional on Saturday. The Bobcats earned a 4-3 win in an elimination game against Seton Hall to advance to face Texas A&M, where the team ultimately came up short of a comeback, falling 4-2 and ending its season.
 
GAME 1: Texas State 4, Seton Hall 3 
Karsen Pierce would start both in the circle and at designated hitter for the Bobcats in the team's 4-3 win over the Seton Hall Pirates. Pierce pitched two innings and allowed four hits in the game.
 
The Pirates took the lead first in the game, hitting a home run dead center for two RBI in the top of the third inning. The home run was the first of the Austin regional through the four games played. From there, the Bobcats fought to stage a comeback.
 
Despite a slew of hits from both sides, it took to the 5^th inning for the Bobcats to score any of its runs. The Pirates had 10 hits through five innings, but a strong defensive showing from the Bobcats' fielders were able to limit the Pirates to just two runs.
 
Pierce singled to start off the 5^th inning for Texas State. Megan Kelnar pinch ran for her but scored off the Ciara Trahan single and fielding error by the Pirates' right fielder. Kelnar and Zarate scoring on Trahan's single, good for her 18^th and 19^th RBI of the season.
 
To tack on a third, Sara Vanderford would hit a sacrifice fly that Trahan scored off.
 
Anna Jones hit her third triple of the season in the 6^th inning, which she'd score on because of Emilee Baker's at-bat, to give the Bobcats the 4-2 lead. 
 
The Pirates loaded the bases in the top of the 7^th, but after just one more run was scored, the Pirates would line out right at Hannah Earls who made the play to end the game.
 
"Credit to Seton Hall," said head coach Ricci Woodard. "They out played us, they out hit us, the only thing they didn't do was out score us."
 
GAME 2: Texas State 2, Texas A&M 4
The Bobcats saw a familiar foe in the second elimination game of the day. After losing to the Texas Longhorns, the Texas A&M Aggies once against squared off against the Bobcats on McCombs Field.
 
The Bobcats once again went down 2-0 in the fourth inning. After Koko Wooley doubled to left center to help their runner score the first, the Aggies tacked on a second with a sacrifice fly.  
 
In the fifth, the Aggies snuck two more onto the board with a single through the left side. The Bobcats were able to get an out on the play, but not before two more runs were scored.
 
It was once again off the bat of Jones in the 6^th inning that the Bobcats would earn a run. She doubled to left center and was out at third on the play, but her hit allowed Vanderford and Earls to score and draw the game closer.
 
The comeback would fall just short, though, despite a great defensive showing in the 7^th inning to keep the Aggies from extending their lead. The Aggies attempted at the sacrifice fly, but when Jones caught the ball out in the right field, she was able to laser the ball to Kelnar at home who got the runner out on the play to end the inning.
 
The Bobcats got two on base in the 7^th, but two strike outs and a Jones' ground out ended the game and the season with the 4-2 loss to Texas A&M.
 
With the two losses to Texas A&M the Bobcats 2023 season officially comes to a close. The team finished with a 35-25-1 record and a 5^th place finish in the Sun Belt Conference, qualifying for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament for the 11^th time in program history.