No. 24 Texas made the 30-mile trek down I-35 looking to improve its 12-game series winning streak over Texas State.
The Bobcats, however, had other ideas in mind.
The Longhorns struggled from the start, and Texas State took advantage. The Bobcats earned a 9-5 victory in front of a 1,011-person crowd, the second-largest in program history. The win was Texas State’s first over Texas since 2010.
“Texas State is a good program,” head coach Connie Clark told 105.3 FM after the game. “It comes down to competing, and they played hard. The challenge is where our mentality will be finishing out this week.”
Texas State got the scoring started in the second inning with help from one of Texas’ four errors. Senior second inning baseman Stephanie Ceo misplayed a routine grounder to put sophomore right fielder Taylor Webb on first. Three Bobcat singles later, Webb got Texas State on the board.
The Longhorns (14–3) took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fifth behind the efforts of a pair of juniors, left fielder Stephanie Wong and third baseman Celina Felix. Both recorded one RBI. But the bottom half of the inning, is where the real damage occurred.
Junior lefty Tiarra Davis — who got the start in the circle for Texas — left the game after giving up a walk and a double to start the fifth. Sophomore Paige von Sprecken entered the game in relief and gave up a three-run homerun to Webb, the first batter she faced. Four-straight walks and a Texas error in right field helped the Bobcats score seven runs in the frame and build a lead Texas couldn’t overcome.
“You’re not going to win playing the way we did tonight, and we know that,” senior center fielder Lindsey Stephens told 105.3 FM. “We can’t let errors snowball, and we can’t give up walks. We’re going to learn from tonight and come back even stronger.”
Stephens was the lone bright spot for Texas, going 3-for-3 with a walk and a RBI at the plate. She helped the Longhorns put together a late game rally, but the three-run seventh wasn’t enough to erase a night full of defensive errors and weak pitching.
Texas will face the Bobcats again on Mar. 30 at Red and Charline McCombs Field. The Longhorns now have a free weekend and will return to action on Mar. 8 against UTSA. Stephens said they won’t be taking too much time off before then.
“We do have a couple of days off, but I doubt any of us will take all of those,” Stephens said. “We can’t stop grinding. We have to keep working and sure up what happened tonight.”
