Senior third baseman Celina Felix tagged a runner, but fumbled the ball. With the bases loaded at the bottom of the ninth, Texas knew its fate.
Texas State’s junior catcher Jaelyn Young had ripped a single for the walk-off win. Texas State downed the Longhorns 2-1 in San Marcos.
“They got the timely hit and unfortunately; we didn’t,” head coach Connie Clark said.
Junior pitcher Kristen Clark would forfeit the first run at the circle to give the Bobcats a 1-0 lead in the third inning. Bobcat second baseman Bailee Carter got the offense rolling in the bottom of the third with a leadoff single, after a sac bunt put her in scoring position, center fielder Christina McDowell knocked an RBI single to the right for the lead.
Texas wouldn’t score until the sixth inning. Freshman Taylor Ellsworth’s hit was fumbled in the outfield for a double to get on base. Senior pitcher Tiarra Davis fired a single to the left, which was muffed by the Bobcat outfield to allow pinch runner Bekah Alcozer to run home.
Freshman Tuesday DerMargosian had two key blasts to put the Longhorns on base at the top of the fifth and the seventh innings, but the Longhorns were unable to bring her home. The Texas State defense caught senior shortstop Devon Tunning’s follow-up blasts to prevent any damage in regular innings.
Tied 1-1, the game went to extra innings. Texas would leave runner Kaitlyn Slack stranded on second at the top of the eighth inning, but that was as close to scoring that the Longhorns would get. The Bobcats loaded the bases at the bottom of the ninth with a walk and two singles. Texas State took advantage to seal the win in walk-off fashion.
“We’ve got to come up with timely hits and I think our ball club is better than the runs we’ve been putting up,” Clark said.
Texas used all of its pitching staff throughout the game, limiting the Bobcats to seven hits. Erica Wright and Paige Von Sprecken both notched two strikeouts at the circle.
“I thought we just competed exceptionally well from the circle tonight,” Clark said. “We’ve got some nice defense at times, but we’re not going to win a lot of games if we score one run. That’s the bottom line.”
