Been there, done that: Texas State's Jessica Mullins wins third straight all-Sun Belt nod
SAN MARCOS — Texas State pitcher Jessica Mullins was named to the Sun Belt's all-conference softball first team this week for the third straight season.
Mullins has won 20 games each season. The junior from Mont Belvieu Barbers Hill was 20-10 with 164 strikeouts and a 1.95 ERA heading into the postseason. She was the 2022 Sun Belt pitcher of the year as a sophomore and was the conference's preseason player of the year this season.
"When you have a pitcher like Mullins, she's going to put you in positions to win ball games," Texas State coach Ricci Woodard said in a statement. "That's what she did for us all year and what she's been doing for her whole career.”
Senior third baseman Sara Vanderford was named to the second team, her second all-conference honor after earning a first-team nod as a freshman. She hit .304 this seaon with 37 RBIs and seven home runs, and she led the Sun Belt with 15 doubles.
Texas State (34-21-1) is the No. 5 seed in this week's Sun Belt tournament in Lafayette, La. The Bobcats opened with a 2-0 win over fourth-seeded Troy — their first win over the Trojans in four tries this season — and were scheduled to face No. 1-seeded Louisiana in Friday night's semifinals.
Mullins (21-10) didn't allow a Troy base runner to reach scoring position all game; the Trojans hit .045 against her.
Football: Iowa State transfer Sean Shaw committed to the Bobcats on Friday, the team's ninth transfer commitment this spring. The 6-foot-6, 212-pound receiver spent five years in Ames, starting nine games and recording 61 catches for 680 yards and nine touchdowns. He had 16 catches for 153 yards and two scores last season.
Shaw is the third receiver to transfer to Texas State this spring, following SMU's Beau Corrales and Utah Tech's Joey Hobert. Texas State has added 27 transfers in its 2023 signing class, which now is up to 39 members.
Since the spring game two weeks ago, 12 Bobcats have announced they have entered the portal — four receivers (Waydale Jones, Donnovan Moorer, Demarcus Gregory and Ahmir Robinson), three defensive linemen (DeOnte Washington, Nace Washington and Kajuan Robinson), two offensive linemen (Jackson Schultze and David Hensley), two defensive backs (Bernock Iya and Pierre Kemeni) and linebacker Issiah Nixon.
Baseball: The Bobcats (33-16, 15-9 Sun Belt) have won five straight games after sweeping Georgia State at home last weekend, propelling them to third place in the conference standings with seven games left. They are on the road this weekend for a three-game series at Louisiana. They will visit TCU on Tuesday before closing out the regular season at home next weekend against Louisiana-Monroe.
Men’s basketball: Legacy School of Sports Sciences (Houston) center Ryan Bolton committed to the Bobcats this week. Bolton, listed at 6-10 and 230 pounds, is the first 2023 commitment since the Bobcats signed three guards in December — San Marcos' Kaden Gumbs, Elijah Tate from South Plains College and Dontae Horne from Howard College.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas State softball pitcher Jessica Mullins named All-Sun Belt
