SAN MARCOS, Texas | After being held hitless by Texas State's Jessica Mullins through the first six innings, South Alabama softball rallied back to take game one of the Sun Belt Conference series, 2-1 on
Victoria Ortiz's seventh-inning, two-run home run Friday night at Bobcat Stadium.
South Alabama (21-9, 4-0 SBC) extended its season-best win streak to seven games with the come-from-behind victory, while Texas State dropped to 19-12 overall and 0-3-1 in league play.
Quotable – head coach Becky Clark
- On the comeback win: "Not giving up the big inning early was huge for us and gave us a chance to come back and win it. (Olivia) Lackie made adjustments as she went and kept us in the game, (Mackenzie) Brasher's work at the plate in the seventh paved the way for (Victoria) Ortiz, who had been having great at-bats all game. She finally got one to go. This was a big win on the road, but we have two more games left in the series. Tomorrow is a new day and we will have to dig in again."
Red-shirt senior OF Victoria Ortiz
- On her two-run home run: "I knew what I wanted to hit going into my last at-bat. I needed to make a small adjustment on the outer half pitch I was getting earlier in the game. I went up to Brash before her at-bat and told her we wanted to be in that spot. As soon as she got on base, I knew we were winning the game."
- On battling back to take the series opener: "Getting the game one win in the series is huge for us. I was proud of us for never packing it in. I thought Liv did a really good job shutting [Texas State] down after they scored. The momentum is in our corner so we need to carry it into the rest of the weekend."
South Alabama 2, Texas State 1
Texas State's Piper Randolph and JJ Smith lined back-to-back, one-out singles to center in the second, and with two outs, Emilee Baker singled to left to load the bases. With the lineup flipped back to the top of the order, Hannah Earls dropped in a single in center to plate a run and give the Bobcats the 1-0 lead. South Alabama's
Olivia Lackie (10-4) prevented any further damage in the inning as she induced a pop out to third to leave the bases loaded.
With one out in the top of the fifth,
Odalys Cordova drew a four-pitch walk, which marked the first baserunner for the Jags, snapping a streak of 13-straight batters retired by Mullins. South Alabama was unable to do anything else with the runner as Jessica Mullins (12-6) retired the next two.
Mackenzie Brasher led off the top of the seventh with a single through the right side of the infield – the first hit allowed by Mullins. Ortiz then drove a 2-1 offering over the wall in left center to put the Jags up 2-1.
Scoring Summary
• 2nd Inn | Earls singled to center, RBI; Randolph scored (0-1, TXST)
• 7th Inn | Ortiz homered to left center, 2 RBI; Brasher scored (2-1, USA)
Postgame Notes
• The win extended South's season-best win streak to seven games, as the Jags have now won 14 of their last 17
• The 4-0 start to league play marks the second-straight year the Jags have done so, opening SBC play with a 5-0 record last spring
• South Alabama has now won each of its last three SBC road openers
• Win was the fourth-consecutive series win in San Marcos
• Ortiz (28) moved into a three-way tie for second in career home runs (Christin Crocker [2009-12] and Kaitlyn Griffith [2012-15])
• Ortiz (106) is also two RBI away from moving into a three-way tie in the category at South with Haley Hopkins (2009-12) and
Kristian Foster (2015-18) for seventh
• Ortiz (30) also moved into a tie with Blair Johnson (2012-15) and Haley Hopkins (2009-12) for fourth all-time in multi-RBI games at South
• Ortiz has driven in at least one run 10 of her last 13, and each of her last seven amassing 16 RBI over that stretch
• Ortiz has had at least one hit in 11 of her last 12, and over the last 10 games, she has recorded seven multi-hit games, had nine extra-base hits, scored nine runs and driven in 19 runs
• The home run by Ortiz was the second career home run off of Mullins
• Brasher has had a hit in 10 of her last 13 games, and over her past seven games, she has scored 11 runs
Up Next
• South Alabama will face Texas State on Saturday with first pitch for game two of the series set for 4 p.m.
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