By Kati Morse @MorseCodeRed

Nestled in the Lone Star State’s serene Hill Country, Texas State University boasts a location that is unlike any other. In fact, it’s known around the world for it. 

The rolling prairies and hills serenely separate the school from the nearby Austin metropolitan area. The campus itself is a sanctuary—its own Eden, of sorts. Almost 500 acres of grand cypresses and oaks line the cool, clear San Marcos River, which flows directly through TXST's campus.

And among the sounds of babbling water in Sewell Park, a collegiate softball powerhouse is quietly being built. 

Starting Stealth

Over the past nearly 20 years, the Bobcats have established themselves as debatably one of the best mid-major teams in any Division I sport, not just softball.

Texas State head coach Ricci Woodard has spent that time constructing a program that entered the 2018 season with a 598-380-1 record, 10 conference titles, and seven NCAA Regional Championship appearances.

She’s ensured this consistency with her attention to detail, dedication, and a keen eye for talent. 

Enter senior pitcher Randi Rupp. 

Much like the Bobcat that dons the front of her jersey, Rupp has also earned her seat at the table. And that table is marked, “Reserved for Best Pitchers in Division I Softball.”

The right-handed pitcher from Mont Belvieu, Texas, entered the 2018 season with quite the resume. She was last season’s Sun Belt Pitcher of the Year, first-team All-Sun Belt and NCFA All-Central Region, and a 2017 second-team NFCA All-American. Each week, she’s at the top of almost every NCAA statistical category, and she keeps the Bobcats in the fight every single year for the Sun Belt title. 

Changing Bobcats History

With three years of experience in the circle, Rupp was primed for success in her senior season. And that success didn’t take long to come to fruition. The Bobcats played their first game of the 2018 campaign on February 8. Just 10 short days later, Rupp became the program’s all-time strikeout leader in a Sunday game versus San Diego—breaking a record that was set back in 2004 (1,014 career strikeouts).

“It feels really good,” Rupp says. “At the beginning of the season, [TXST pitching coach Cat Osterman] sat me down. We looked at the records a little bit. But she explained to me that as long I work hard and come in ready to compete every day, the numbers will take care of themselves. I’m so excited to reach the milestone, but I’m just excited to be on the field again and start my last season here at Texas State.”

It’s hard to believe, even for Rupp, that it’s her last season in a Texas State uniform because just four short years ago she wasn’t a Bobcat at all. She was an Eagle at Barbers Hill High School and smack-dab in the middle of the recruiting process. As the 2013-14 Gatorade Texas Softball Player of the Year (27-1 record), she naturally had quite a few invitations to play at the college level. Other than Texas State, Houston, Sam Houston, and Florida International were also vying for the chance to have the top softball prospect in Texas come to their program.

But Texas State softball—and the San Marcos River—had other plans.

“When I came up and watched a game, I saw how much fun they had out there," Rupp recalls.

“You could feel it in the stands. I told my mom and dad that I wanted to be out there. And then we got to tour the campus, and this campus is something you can’t pass up. It’s beautiful here… with the river and everything.”

Rupp could’ve signed on the dotted line then and there. But she had to discuss things with someone else first: her lifelong catcher and best friend, Sara… who also happens to be her twin sister. 

“We didn’t want to leave each other,” Rupp explains. “From the get-go, we sat down with our select coach and told him that if schools were only interested in just Sara or just me, then we weren’t interested in going there. Coach Woodard offered both of us scholarships. That was something that we were really interested in.”

Sara Rupp is a great player in her own right. In high school, she earned all-district and All-Greater Houston honors. Over the past three seasons, she’s become the backbone of the Bobcats squad in her spot behind the plate. And Randi wouldn’t have had it any other way. 

Woodard Welcomes Osterman

But another huge development was in the works for Rupp. Woodard, again, has a knack for recognizing talent—and not just in her players. The summer before Rupp's freshman year at Texas State, Woodard hired Cat Osterman as the Bobcats’ new pitching coach. 

The former three-time National Player of the Year and four-time All-American at the University of Texas and a two-time Olympic medalist with Team USA? Yeah, that Cat Osterman.

It most likely took a little while for the “fangirl” phase to subside for Rupp… and who could blame her? Her childhood idol was about to be her college coach. 

“When I was a kid, softball was all about Jennie Finch and Cat Osterman,” Rupp recalls.  “When I got the call about her being the new pitching coach, I knew that God placed me here for a reason. I know I was supposed to come to Texas State for a lot of reasons, but I know for sure this was one of them.”

Rupp and “Coach O” both began their maiden voyages as Bobcats in 2015. Since then, it should come as no surprise that Osterman has helped mold Rupp into one of the country’s top hurlers. 

As a freshman, Rupp became statistically the best pitcher in the Sun Belt Conference. She recorded a no-hitter In March of that season and then a perfect game by April—a feat that many DI pitchers don’t record until they are upperclassmen. With a total of 293 strikeouts by the end of 2015, she earned first-team All-Sun Belt Conference honors and a second-team NFCA All-Region nod.

But Rupp admits that, at first, it wasn’t always smooth sailing. 

“My freshman year, I struggled a bit,” she explains. “I was still trying to learn what this level of softball was. The mental side of the game… I didn’t have it.”

Two of Rupp's first three games as a Bobcat were hard losses. A total of 19 earned runs from Northern Illinois and Pittsburgh loomed in front of the freshman after her opening weekend.

“I think I was too caught up in the moment and things would get to me,” Randi recalls. “I would get flustered. I don’t think I enjoyed my freshman year nearly as much as I have the last two years.”

And in moments of frustration, who better to help a young pitcher work through them than someone who has been there, done that? Who better than THE Cat Osterman?

Coach O Knows

“It gives me a lot of confidence to know that she’s not telling me something just to tell me something,” Randi says of Coach O. “And she’ll tell you that I take in everything. She and the rest of the coaches here truly believe in the mental aspect of the game of softball… not just about your physical ability. That’s something they’ve preached to me since I’ve gotten here, and it took me about a year. But I’ve bought into it.”

Rupp most certainly bought into it. Her approach to pitching has been fine-tuned since that point in 2015. She’s gone from a “rare-back-and-throw” hurler to a “stay-calm-and-think-about-it” calculating captain. That transition can be seen not only in her demeanor on the mound but also in the numbers of the scorebook.

Her 2015 season ended with a 24-14 record and a 2.70 ERA. 

In 2016, her record was 30-14 with a 1.66 ERA.

And as a junior, Rupp finished the season with a stout 28-10 record and 1.22 ERA.

Any seasoned softball player or coach would see Rupp is deserving of recognition for this steady improvement. And quite a few already have: Rupp was voted the 2018 Sun Belt Preseason Pitcher of the Year by the league’s coaches in their annual poll. The Texas State Bobcats were also tabbed as the No. 1 team in the conference, earning six of the 10 first-place votes to secure the top spot. 

Rupp feels strongly that the second accolade is much more important than the first. It’s a testament to Woodard’s whole program and how just the right mix of folks helped mold Rupp into the player you see today.

First, Rupp credits her sister, Sara:
“The bond that Sara and I have is just indescribable,” Randi says. “It’s important for a pitcher and catcher to have a strong bond anyway. But to be able to throw to my twin sister for so long… it’s something that I’ll cherish forever.”

Next, her idol turned mentor, Coach O:
“She’s done an incredible job at pushing me and teaching me,” Randi explains. “I’ve learned an endless amount—not just about softball but about life. I’ve gained a great friend and a great role model. I’ve been successful because of her.”

And most importantly, Rupp credits her success to Woodard’s emphasis on player development and the true focus on the mental side of the game. 

“I think that’s truly why it put me in the spot I am today—to truly believe in ‘one pitch at a time,'" Rupp says. “To believe in each other, in the coaching staff. Just to go out there, relax and throw, to not try to do too much. I’ve put the past in the past and started this year as a new year. I think that’s been a huge part of why I am where I am.”

Rupp's maturation on the mound is one of the best examples of tapped potential in recent softball history. She’s exactly what can happen when you take raw talent and mix it with hard work and flat-out great coaching. The collegiate softball world has seen Rupp grow from a freshman phenom to a seasoned veteran… from a flash flood to a quiet, flowing river. Because wasn’t it a river that drew her to Texas State in the first place? 

Randi Rupp and the San Marcos River: calm, cool and collected—but strong enough to alter anything they encounter.