SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State Softball had a come-from-behind victory over the Penn State Nittany Lions in the opening game of the College Station NCAA Regional. The Bobcats will play the winner of tonight's game between Texas A&M and UAlbany tomorrow at 2 pm on the Davis Diamond.
 
The Bobcats struck first with a run in the fourth inning, but the Nittany Lions answered with two of their own. From there, the Bobcats scored three unanswered runs in the 6^th inning to come out on top with a 4-2 win.
 
Jessica Mullins started and tossed a complete game with the win, the 100^th win of her career. She gave up just four hits and two earned runs while striking out four innings.

The Bobcats will wait to find out their opponent but will play at 2 pm tomorrow with the game being streamed on ESPN+.

What Head Coach Ricci Woodard said: "We're never out. That's the thing that I like about them the most. We've talked about it a ton. You're going to get punched, you better be able to punch back. That's what I love about this group.  
 
What 3B Sara Vanderford said: "All year we've found a way to win. We've fought through the hard. We've done the little things. I think that's what beat us in the fourth, we had some momentum taking at-bats. Whenever you can take an inning like that and learn from that. Then you get an inning with Karmyn Bass getting on, Kat Zarate moving over. Even if we don't' score that inning, we're starting to get things in the right direction. Just knowing that we had runners on almost every inning and finding a way to win.


How It Happened:
Mullins started the game retiring the Nittany Lions in order with a fly out, ground out and pop up. From there, the Bobcats were able to load the bases in the bottom half of the inning but put no runs away.
 
Neither side was able to put a run away in the 2^nd or 3^rd, but the Bobcats broke the deadlock in the fourth. It came on an RBI single from Hannah Earls who scored Bass. Bass was walked to leadoff the inning.
 
Five of the six runs in the game came in the 6^th inning, starting with a two-run homer from Penn State to temporarily take the lead.
 
The Bobcats had an answer, though. Starting things off was a pair of singles from Sydney Harvey and Hannah Earls. Vanderford hit her second double of the day for the an RBI to tie the game. Following that up was an RBI single from Anna Jones to take the lead. Piper Randolph would hit the insurance run to make it a 4-2 game, scoring Vanderford.
 
Mullins would again retire the Nittany Lions in order to end the game, sending the third batter back to the dugout with a strikeout.

Texas State came away with a 4-2 win on Friday afternoon, advancing to play the winner of Texas A&M and Penn State.