SAN ANTONIO – Entering Saturday’s American Athletic Conference game against UAB, senior Lindsey Davis and her teammates were reminiscing about her breakout game last season against Charlotte in mid-April in which Davis hit two home runs.
Wouldn’t it be great if UTSA softball’s starting left fielder could do that again, they mused?
Almost as if they spoke it into existence, Davis replicated her feat in Saturday’s 13-8 win against the Blazers at Roadrunner Field. She finished 3-for-4 at the plate with two home runs and three runs scored. The victory gave UTSA its 16th of the season, exceeding the win total from all of last year with 14 contests remaining on the regular-season schedule.
“Being part of a team is really cool because, at any moment, anything like that can happen,” Davis said. “You have to keep trusting the process. It can be anybody on the team and you never want to count anybody out. It feels amazing knowing that I can do that and help keep people’s spirits up. Being able to know that any one of us has the power to come up and, with one swing, totally change the momentum is so encouraging.”
Davis scored the Roadrunners’ first run of the game on Saturday, motoring past third and sliding into home plate from second base after Camryn Robillard flied out to right field. After the top of the third inning, Davis’ run marked the only one for UTSA, which found itself down 7-1. The Roadrunners cut their deficit to 7-5 after the bottom of the third frame thanks in large part to Madison Hornback’s first home run of the season.
With one out in the bottom of the fifth, Davis connected on her first homer of the season – a solo shot – that sparked a five-run inning for UTSA. She repeated in the sixth, launching her second round-tripper of the day with one out. That home run made the final 13-8 margin.
“She’s just been a soldier since I got here,” UTSA head coach Vann Stuedeman said. “She buys in and she’s extremely mature. It’s just really fun for a coach see that happen for a kid like Lindsey. She’s invested into her teammates, she’s invested into herself and she’s invested in UTSA. For her to have a day like that just makes your heart smile.”
While Davis’ performance on Saturday marked an offensive explosion, she had been steadily preparing for the moment with film study and an adjustment to her swing.
“I’ve been hitting the ball, just not really square, but I’ve been putting balls in play,” Davis said. “I just decided I’m going to slow myself down a bit, be more under control and maybe not swing as big. Instead of swinging at 100 percent, maybe swing at 75 percent and just see what happens to do something different. Today I just trusted that and did that and it paid off.”
Davis has also been working on her mental approach to the game, trying not to overthink her plate appearances.
“Figuring out something that works is a good cue for me to have as a hitter,” Davis said. “I’m a green in our True Colors assessment; I’m a thinker. I like to think about everything and I like to have reasoning. It can hurt you a lot as a hitter to be a green because you really can’t think, you just have to keep things simple and be really relaxed and not try to do too much. I really kind of felt what that was like today. It was nice to be able to feel it and do it and have it pay off. Today was one of those days where everything paid off.”
Stuedeman, who knows the amount of talent that comprises her team, understands the significance of achieving the program’s most victories in a single season since 2022, while continually striving to take the Roadrunners to the next level.
“It’s important,” she said. “We need to just keep plugging and keep stacking the belief and the hope. We have the skill. It’s tough to turn over a culture. When something bad happens, the thought just creeps in of, ‘Oh no, here we go again.’ It really takes a mentally strong squad to suffocate that noise. For us to get the win today to take us to one more than last year, it’s just another brick on the foundation.”
For Davis – a four-year player for the Roadrunners who bought into Stuedeman’s vision following a coaching change after her sophomore season – to be the player that ignited the notable win seemed meant to be.
“It’s so special,” Stuedeman said. “Good things happen when you do good things. Sometimes they don’t happen as fast as you want them to happen, but it’s coming. Lindsey believes that and she had a big shining moment today. I’m really happy for her.”
UTSA wraps up the three-game series with UAB at 1 p.m. Sunday at Roadrunner Field.