BOBCAT SPORTS WEEKLY WRAP-UP

SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State continued a strong week into the final day of competition at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays and Bobcat Invitational in Austin and San Marcos.

“I am super proud of this Bobcat team,” said Head Coach Dana Boone. “We had some strong performances that will set us up later in the season. We were well represented at the Texas Relays. It was great to see.”

The women’s 4×400-meter relay turned in a time of 3:39.54 thanks to the work of Marika Brown, Macahla Wesley, Briana Adamsand Nia Dorner. That bettered their qualifying time of 3:41.59 and places the Bobcats firmly atop the Sun Belt Conference. The team finished third in its group beind Purdue and Oklahoma but beat Pittsburgh, Louisiana Tech, Colorado, UNLV and Sam Houston State.

Meanwhile, James Hilliard, Anthony Johnson, De’Quad Binder and De’Marcus Porter ran a 3:08.72 in the men’s 4×400-meter relay, just behind the team’s qualifying time of 3:08.67, still putting the Bobcats in first place in the SBC. The squad beat UTEP, Stephen F. Austin and Notre Dame, finishing second in its group.

In pole vault, senior Seth Arnold put up a career best 5.50 meters (18-0.5) to take first at the Texas Relays and put himself atop the conference by nearly a foot-and-a-half. It’s an impressive personal record for a senior who has continually performed well, setting his highest mark since last year’s indoor season.

Chelsie Decoud put up her best high jump of her young collegiate career with a height of 1.76 meters (5-9.25) to take ninth at the Texas Relays but place another Bobcat on top of the Sun Belt rankings.

Julie Lange continued her impressive week with a discus throw of 53.26 meters (174-9) to take second in her group at the Texas Relays. It would be a personal best if she hadn’t thrown for a distance of 53.74 meters (176-4) just a day ago at the Bobcat Invitational. Her new personal record beats her previous best by seven-feet-three-inches and puts her first in the conference by more than two feet.

Darian Brown took hold of first in the Sun Belt with a shot put of 18.26 meters (59-11) at the Texas Relays.

The Bobcats also did well at the Bobcat Invitational in San Marcos on Saturday. Antonisha Stewart ran a 14.02 in the 100-meter hurdles, beating her time at the Texas Relays and snagging first in the Sun Belt Conference with her season best performance.

Also on the track, in the men’s 200-meter dash, the Bobcats saw Cody Schulz, Jayvon Dempsey and Mark Barre all achieve personal bests with times of 21.44, 21.90 and 22.13 respectively. Schulz takes first in the conference while Dempsey is tied for third. Barre jumped into the top 10 in the conference.

Schulz also put together a good performance in long jump, jumping 7.27 meters (23-10) for third in the conference, improving on his previous mark set just a day ago. Abby Hani long jumped a personal best 5.87 meters to finish second at the Bobcat Invitational and tie her for third in the conference.

Finally, Anicka Newell cleared 3.85 meters (12-7.5) to grab the second spot in the Sun Belt Conference.

Texas State will be back at it next week in Waco, Texas, at the Baylor Invitational on Friday.

SAN MARCOS, Texas – After Texas State pulled off the Friday night victory, Georgia Southern rebounded Saturday to win, 12-3, and even up both teams’ Sun Belt Conference records at 7-4.

For the Bobcats, Cory Geisler led at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a run scored. Tanner Hill and Ben McElroy also struck hits in the game for Texas State. Unfortunately, Georgia Southern knocked 20 hits in the game, tying a season high for the squad.

Texas State started right with two runs in the bottom of the first inning for an early 2-0 lead. Geisler led off with a single through the right side and Cedric Vallieres was next to reach base, taking first on an error by the Georgia Southern third baseman, Spencer Duffie. With those two on, David Paiz moved the runners to second and third base with a fly ball and Hill brought them in with a single up the middle to put Texas State up 2-0.

The Bobcats would not score again until the seventh inning. Colby Targun worked the count for a walk and advanced to second on a Georgia Southern error. He went to third on Geisler’s third hit of the day. With bases loaded, Vallieres took a hit by pitch to plate Targun and pick up an RBI. Texas State, however, would need much more than three runs to battle the Eagle Saturday.

Georgia Southern went ahead in the game with a three-run homer in the third inning. In the fifth, five singles in the first six hitters of the inning led to three more runs. The Eagles added three more in the sixth, two unearned, and three more in the ninth to close out the game, 12-3.

In relief, Tyler Giovanoni was solid for the Bobcats throughout 2.2 innings. He gave up four hits, but struck out four batters with only one walk and did not allow a run.

Texas State will look to bounce back in the series finale against Georgia Southern at 12 p.m. Sunday, a game that will determine the top spot in the Sun Belt Conference.

SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State softball team launched four home runs and 12 total hits in game one of a doubleheader to defeat the No. 8 UL Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns by a score of 14-13 Saturday afternoon. Texas State would ultimately fall in game two by a score of 15-2. The 14 runs scored by Texas State was the most any opponent had ever scored against the Ragin’ Cajuns in Sun Belt Conference play.

The Bobcats move to 21-14 overall and 6-4 in Sun Belt Conference play after the Saturday split.

3/28/2015 Softball vs. UL LafayetteSoftball vs. UL Lafayette Softball vs. UL Lafayette

There were a combined 27 runs and 24 hits in the first game of the day. Ariel Ortiz led the Bobcats with a perfect 3-for-3 showing in game one while Kelli Baker, Kendall Wiley, and Braegan Hamilton all add two apiece.

For the day, Ortiz notched four runs on just five at bats with a pair of walks and an 85.7 percent on base percentage. She, along with Wiley, were the two Bobcats who averaged over .500 over the course of the doubleheader.

Run production started early and often in game one of the doubleheader as the Ragin’ Cajuns started the contest off with a two-run shot to left center field. A pair of strikeouts by Randi Rupp in the inning limited the damage to just two in the top of the first.

Texas State quickly answered the call and set the tone as to how the rest of game one would go. Baker led the inning off with a single through the left side and was followed by Ortiz to the bases by way of a walk. With two on and no outs, Courtney Harris sacrificed herself to advance the runners to second and third. A wild pitch by UL Lafayette starter Jordan Wallace scored the first run of the contest for Texas State.

After Baker scored on the wild pitch, Wiley kept the inning alive with a single down the right field line to score Ortiz and to tie up the game at 2-2.

The Bobcat defense proceeded to hold the Ragin’ Cajuns scoreless in the top of the second before rattling off a four run, three hit second inning to take a 6-2 lead over the visiting Cajuns. Texas State capitalized on a hit by pitch to start the inning by Sara Rupp to get the ball rolling for the Bobcat offense.

UL Lafayette then returned the favor in the top of the third as it took advantage of two Bobcat errors in addition to a pair of hits to cut the Texas State lead down to one.

Back-to-back home runs by Ortiz and Harris boosted the Bobcat lead back up to three in the bottom of the fourth inning. It was Ortiz’s seventh and Harris’ fifth home runs of the season.

The only completely scoreless inning of the first game was the fifth inning.

The Ragin’ Cajuns came raging back in the top of the six, adding three more on a double and a home run to tie up the contest at 8-8.

Texas State was up to test in the bottom of the sixth and rallied back to score six runs on five hits. After Ortiz singled to right field to lead off the inning, Kortney Koroll rocketed her eighth homer of the season to dead centerfield to give Texas State the lead once again at 10-8. The Bobcats were not finished in that half of the inning as small ball and an error by UL Lafayette loaded the bases. Katie Doerre then stepped up to the plate as a pinch hitter and hit a grand slam to left center to give the Bobcats a 14-8 lead. Both of Doerre’s home runs this season have been in pinch hitting situations.

UL Lafayette wasn’t finished itself as it led off the top of the seventh with a solo shot to left field. The Cajuns then got the bases loaded on a single, double, and a walk for Shellie Landry who would then hit a grand slam to all of a sudden cut the Bobcat lead to one with two outs. A fly-out to Braegan Hamilton in centerfield ended the contest to give Texas State its first victory of the season over a ranked opponent.

Rupp earned her 15th victory of the season as she put in seven innings of work in the circle for Texas State. She struck out eight while walking just three.

Game two fell in favor in the beginning to UL Lafayette. The Ragin’ Cajuns got on the board in the first inning on a two-run shot and that would prove to set the tone for the remainder of the game.

UL Lafayette ultimately scored two more in the second, seven in the third, and four in the fourth to end with 15 runs in the game.

The offensive highlight in game two for the Bobcats was in the bottom of the third inning when Bianca Prado hit her first home run of the season to score the only two runs for Texas State.

Garner was handed the loss in game two after putting in four innings of work in the circle while fanning three. She falls to 3-2 on the season.

Texas State will continue play against the Ragin’ Cajuns tomorrow afternoon with first pitch scheduled at 12 p.m. at the Bobcat Softball Stadium. Live stats, live audio and live video will be available at www.txstatebobcats.com.

ARLINGTON, Texas – The Texas State women’s tennis team returned to action after a two-week layoff and suffered a 4-0 loss at UT Arlington Saturday at the UTA Tennis Center.

Playing their second match against a Sun Belt Conference opponent this season, the Bobcats quickly fell behind 1-0 after the Mavericks captured the team doubles point by winning matches on the No. 2 and No. 3 courts.

The day began with Monica Pieratt and Shannon Beckett dropping an 8-2 decision against Jessica Birowski and Augustina Serio in the No. 3 match. Then, Ana Laura Gutierrez and Pippa Carr suffered an 8-4 setback in the No. 2 match against Elizabeth Thoms and Astrid Gehre.

The Mavericks also won three singles matches to clinch the victory as Eva Dench suffered a 6-0, 6-1 loss against Gehre in the No. 4 match. Then, Gutierrez fell 6-2, 6-2 against Angeles de los Rios on the No. 2 court and Pieratt dropped a 6-2, 6-3 outcome against Thoms in the No. 1 match.

The loss drops Texas State’s overall record to 4-5 this season. The Bobcats return to Arlington next week when they play Arkansas State on April 2, UL Lafayette on April 3 and UL Monroe on April 4 at the UTA Tennis Center.

SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State Volleyball has been working hard in the spring to get ready for the 2015 fall season, and, this weekend, Bobcat fans will get to see the improved Bobcats at work.

Texas State will host Blinn, Navarro, Angelo State, Incarnate Word, San Jacinto, Texas A&M-Kingsville and Temple in a pool tournament.

For the Bobcats, they’re set to play Blinn at 9 a.m. and Navarro at 12 p.m. After that, the Bobcats will take on Angelo State at 1 p.m. in the packed full day. All of Texas State’s games will be played in Strahan Coliseum.

Upon completion of the tournament, the Bobcats will head out to Sewell Park for games, food and awards from the 2014 season.

The rest of Texas State’s spring season includes a match at Baylor on Thursday at 7 p.m. and a tournament at the Fast Complex in Houston on April 11.