SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State Softball is the 2024 Sun Belt Conference Tournament Champions after beating the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns 9-5 on Saturday afternoon. The win was courtesy of a hot start and hot bats from the Bobcats throughout the seven innings, with the Bobcats scoring runs in four different innings.
 
It was a three run first inning helped along by two errors from the Ragin' Cajuns that started the Bobcats night, but timely hitting and a two-run homer by JJ Smith was enough to push the Bobcats to the 9-5 win. 
 
Jessica Mullins tossed the complete game from inside the circle, striking four batters out in the process.

The Bobcats now are two-time Sun Belt Tournament Champions, their last coming in 2018. With the win, the Bobcats earn an automatic qualifier in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Texas State will wait to find out its NCAA Regional destination during tomorrow's ESPN Selection Show. The Show will be at 6 pm on ESPN2.

What Head Coach Ricci Woodard said: "First, hats off to the Cajuns, that was a heck of a battle. Someone had to win that one and someone had to lose it but hats off. They've had a great season and I don't doubt they're going to continue it through regionals and super regionals. It was a fun game and a fun atmosphere. Second, how about Bobcat nation? It doesn't get much better than that. And third, how about this team? They were fun to watch from the get-go.  
 
What 3B Sara Vanderford said: "You saw it when they put up two runs in two different innings and then we were down all of the sudden. They take what you give them and run. That's what we had to do [to win] was to keep our aggressive mindset. We had to be the aggressors and not just sitting back on our heels put us in a position to win that game.
 
What 1B JJ Smith said: "We had to just keep being the aggressor. Throughout the lineup everybody is doing a great job of barreling the balls so just keep having confidence in ourselves that the next at-bat could be your at-bat and keeping your foot on the gas.

How It Happened:
Hannah Earls led off and was able to get on base from a fielding error by the Ragin' Cajuns first basement. From there, she advanced to third off a single from Emilee Baker. When Sara Vanderford was walked, the bases were loaded with no outs. Anna Jones opened the scoring with an RBI single. Following that up was a sac-fly from Piper Randolph. She third run of the inning came was off a fielding error by the Louisiana short stop.
 
Louisiana was able to pull back two runs in the bottom of the inning after a 2 RBI single. The Ragin' Cajuns took their lone lead of the game in the 3^rd inning off a a 2 RBI triple. 
 
The Bobcats answered those runs in the top of the 4^th, though, when Baker hit another single for an RBI to tie the game. Vanderford would hit a sac-fly to make it 5-4 before Jones hit another RBI single to make it a two-run game.
 
Despite getting a hit in the 4^th, Louisiana was unable to bring back any runs.
 
Then came the home run hero JJ Smith up to bat. She sliced a ball over the left field fence to bring in two more runs and extend the Bobcat lead to four. This was her 10th home run of the season.
 
Louisiana hit an RBI single in the 5^th to make it a three-run game, but it wasn't enough. The Bobcats were able to hold onto their lead.
 
Smith capped off the night with an RBI single to make the final score 9-5 and seal the Bobcats tournament win.