Texas State Shocks No. 15 Texas

In the second game against a nationally ranked opponent at home, Texas State beat Texas 9-7 in dramatic fashion. Leah Boatright went two for two with five RBI’s and two homeruns, including the walk off homerun to win the game. The last time Texas State beat Texas at home was in 2006, ending a three year streak of losing to the Longhorns at home.

“We kept battling and we were able to get a couple of runs at the end of the game off of their best pitcher and that was huge for us,” said head coach Ricci Woodard.

Texas State began the game by retiring the first three Texas batters, two of them by strikeout. The Bobcats were able to keep Texas from scoring in the second inning as well, leaving a Texas runner on third. Chandler Hall had four strikeouts in the first three innings of work.

Texas State scored in the second inning on a McKenzie Baack single up the middle, bringing in Haley Lemons. The Bobcats followed that with a blooper over first base by Allyce Rother to score Jenna Emery for another run.

The Bobcats had the opportunity to bring in more runs with the bases loaded for Anna Hernandez, but Hernandez flied out to left field.

Boatright then continued the hitting attack with a two-run homerun in the third inning; her third homer of the year and second in three games after hitting a grand slam on Sunday. It proved to be essential for the Bobcats to get an early 4-0 lead.

“It was huge. They (Texas) didn’t want to have to use Blaire Luna at all tonight so getting the early lead forced them to play their hands differently,” said Woodard.

Hall allowed the first runs and hits by Texas, after giving up back-to-back solo homeruns by Amy Hooks and Loryn Johnson. Taylor Hoagland broke a UT hitting streak with 17 straight games.

Hall loaded the bases and gave up four runs before coming out of the game. Anne Marie Taylor came in to pitch after Hall.

“That’s one of the hardest parts of the job, trying to decide when to take the pitcher out or leave the pitcher in,” said Woodard.

Taylor committed two illegal pitches in the fifth inning that allowed Texas to score yet another run in the inning, but eventually settled down and continued to pitch strong in the sixth and seventh inning.

Tello hit a sharp grounder in the sixth inning to the second baseman who fumbled it and then tossed it into the Texas State dugout which scored two runs.

The tying and winning run got on base for the Bobcats in the bottom of the seventh, and Boatright hit her second homerun of the game to win the game. That was her third in the past three games and fourth on the season. Boatright is now third in the all time career standings for RBI’s at Texas State.

“When Leah got up there, she’s been as confident as anybody and one swing of the bat and the ball left the yard,” said Woodard.

The Bobcats now move to 14-13 on the season as they get ready to travel to Southeastern Louisiana this weekend. Texas State plays a double header on Saturday, March 27 beginning at 3:00pm. Sunday’s single game is set for 12:00pm.