Mother Nature, Baylor Rain on Bobcats' Parade

After a monumental 8-0 run-rule victory over #12 Northwestern on Friday, the Texas State softball team was originally scheduled to play the Baylor Lady Bears at 1:30 pm Saturday afternoon. However, it was apparent early Saturday morning as the players looked out their hotel windows that their original plans for second day of the Waco Regional Bracket of the NCAA Softball Tournament were about to be washed out. A steady torrent of rain that started around 10:00 am forced the game to be moved back to 8:00 pm, and the wait did not prove to be beneficial as Baylor drenched Texas State's hopes of heading into Sunday undefeated with a 7-4 win over the Bobcats.

From the start, things seemed to be slightly off for the Bobcats as Baylor struck first with a massive Brette Reagan solo shot to center field, but the game still had a heavyweight slugfest type of feel to it early. Despite leaving runner after runner on base, the Texas State bats were alive and well throughout the game and kept the Cats from going under. Allyce Rother and Jenna Emery tallied an RBI each in the 2nd and 3rd innings to keep pace with a couple of Baylor runs, and the Bobcats even saw a frenzied rally to take a 3-2 lead at the end of the 4th off of a Taylor Hall RBI single.

Unfortunately, immediately after that lead change was when disaster struck. Two shockingly inaccurate throws from catcher Megan Parten and Southland Conference Player of the Year Alex Newton brought two runs home on two errors, and a tired starting pitcher Chandler Hall finally saw the floodgates open on her with a two-RBI single from pinch-hitter Jordan Vanatta. To add insult to injury, another inaccurate Parten throw brought another run home in the 6th inning, and a Jenna Emery blast to the right-field wall was robbed by Megan Turk on an amazing highlight-reel catch in the 7th inning. At this point, Bobcat fans probably felt like they were thrust into the twilight zone as they saw Baylor do to Texas State almost what Texas State did to Northwestern the day before.

Oddly enough, Chandler Hall (25-10) had fewer earned runs on the day than her Baylor counterpart Whitney Canion (26-16), as the two pitchers had 2 and 4, respectively. However, Texas State lost this game because they were unable to execute on the offensive and defensive ends. A breakout of Bobcat bats was wasted as 9 runners were left on base despite 12 hits tallied; the main mistakes committed by the offense were some uncharacteristic struggles in base-running in addition to seven strikeouts that were mainly the product of batters fishing for pitches they had no business swinging at. Also, the uncharacteristic defensive errors that directly or indirectly brought home four runs will obviously leave a sour taste in this team's mouth.

The Bobcats will now have to climb a steep hill to win the Waco Regional as they first have to defeat a salty top 25 team in Louisiana-Lafayette tomorrow at 12:30 pm to stay alive. Then, they'll have to take on Baylor again as the rain delay forced the 6:30 pm loser's bracket game scheduled for Saturday night to be rescheduled to Sunday at 3:00 pm. If they win that game, they'll get to play--guess who?--Baylor once again at 5:30 pm on Sunday. Three potential games in one day? It's pretty clear that the NCAA dropped the ball on this one by not scheduling an extra day in case of a rainout. However, if there's any team that can fight through adversity like this, it's Texas State, so tune in tomorrow on 89.9 KTSW, ktsw.net and txstatebobcats.com as we will have maximum coverage of the softball team's progress throughout the day.

- Will Butler, KTSW Sports Director/Blog Editor