(Photo Courtesy of Texas State Athletics)
SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State softball team won its first game of the season in extra innings on Wednesday evening after senior Timishia North ripped a single down the left field line to lift the Bobcats, 7-6, over Houston Baptist. With the victory, the Bobcats head to the Campbell Cartier Classic in San Diego this weekend with a 4-1 overall record.
In the bottom of the eighth, down 6-5, Texas State placed pinch runner Danielle Warne on second base due to the international tiebreaker. A throwing error by the Houston Baptist third baseman on a sacrifice bunt by Katie Doerre sent Warne home with one out. With pinch runner Bianca Prado on second with two outs, North’s single found its way to the left field corner, providing the opportunity for Prado to score the winning run.
Houston Baptist got on the board first in the top of the first, hitting back-to-back home runs in the two-three slots of the lineup with one out. Texas State worked its way out of the inning two batters later with a pair of pop-ups to Kelli Baker at second and Delia Saucedo in left field.
Extending her hitting streak to five games, sophomore Kendall Wiley quickly returned the favor to the Huskies, hitting a three-run blast to right centerfield, driving in Baker and North.
After a scoreless second from both dugouts, Houston Baptist added another run in the top of the third. Lauren Schwirtlich found her way to third after a triple to right center and advanced home on a Doerre throw to first, throwing out Kirsten Schwirtlich on a drop third strike call.
With back-to-back line drive singles to left field by Courtney Harris and Saucedo, the Bobcats quickly found themselves in scoring position to regain the lead in the bottom of the third. The Huskies then walked Kortney Koroll, loading the bases for Doerre. Doerre proceeded to hit a hard hit ball down the left field line, scoring Harris on third.
In her second inning of work, senior Rayn House struck out the side in the top of the fourth.
The Huskies then threatened to score again in the top of the fifth, getting runners on first and second, but failed to move them around as House forced a pop up to Jordan Masek at shortstop.
Down the stretch, the bats quieted down for both teams until the top of the seventh when the Huskies’ Cecilia Bauer stepped in as a pinch hitter and hit a home run over the left field fence, tying the game up at 4-all. Three batters later, Shay Orsak hit a line drive double to left center, setting up K. Schwirtlich with a runner in scoring position. Schwirtlich promptly hit Houston Baptist’s second straight double to go up 5-4 over Texas State.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Bobcats answered once again, tying the game up when Saucedo hit a sacrifice fly to left that scored pinch runner Alli Akina at third. With one out, Wiley stepped up big again, hitting a double to left center to start the Bobcats first rally to win the game. Harris then added to Wiley’s run with a single to right, sending Wiley to third. Houston Baptist got out of the jam, however, striking out Kortney Koroll with the runners on the corners.
With the international tiebreaker rule in affect, Houston Baptist added a run in the top of the eighth, putting the Bobcats down 6-5 going to the bottom half of the inning.
North finished the game going 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI. Baker recorded her fourth stolen base of the season in the first inning.
House earned the win, improving to 3-0 on the young season.
Texas State returns to action this weekend as it travels to San Diego for the Campbell Cartier Classic. The Bobcats will start the tournament on Feb. 14 against St. Mary’s College at 11 a.m.
