March 11, 2017
Davis, Calif. - Saturday morning at the Aggies Invitational was more of the same for the San José State softball team and pitcher Katelyn Linford. The Spartans defeated the Iowa State Cyclones 4-1 to sweep all six of its games this week, including five at this tournament and Linford, in her fourth start in as many days, tossed a complete game win to improve to 5-0 on the week.
Against Iowa State, she went 7.0 innings struck out five and allowed six hits. She didn't walk any batters and would have had her second complete game shutout of the week were it not for an ISU solo homer in the seventh with San José State already leading 4-0. The win improves Linford's record is 11-2, her career high for wins in a season.
Linford and Cyclones' starter Brianna Weilbacher went shot-for-shot though four and a half scoreless innings. But in the fifth, with SJSU have been no-hit to that point, the Spartans struck for two runs.
Emma Entzminger led off and was hit by a pitch. Casey Watt (1-for-3, R, RBI, 3B) then roped a ball into the gap in right center and was off to the races. Entzminger came all the way around to score and Watt was held at third for her third triple of the season. The next two batters, Cassidy Clark and Brittany Abacherli (0-for-1, 3BB) walked to load the bases. Madison Aurin (1-for-2, 2RBI) hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Watt and SJSU was up 2-0.
The triple was once again the big hit in the sixth against relief pitcher Savannah Sanders, who recorded the last two outs in the previous inning. Chelsea Jenner (1-for-1, R, 3B) smoked a shot to the same spot as Watt and got to third without a throw. Entzminger (0-for-1, R, RBI), the next batter, drove the run in on a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0. After a strikeout, Clark (0-for-1, R, 3BB) and Abacherli worked Sanders for walks. Aurin singled up the middle to plate Clark and it was 4-0.
In the seventh, Linford induced the first two outs before Sami Williams got hold of one and drove it over the centerfield fence to make it 4-1. Linford then struck out the final Cyclones batter to end the game.
SJSU left three runners on in the first, two in the third, three more after scoring twice in the fifth and stranded two more after its two runs in the sixth.
Iowa State had opportunities in each of the first two innings. In the first, they got a one-out double. Linford induced a groundout to the left side and then Alexandra Luna fired a dart behind the runner on second to complete the third pickoff of the weekend.
In the second Linford gave up back-to-back one-out singles, only to induce 4-3 double play to end the inning. In the fourth and sixth, Iowa State started off the inning with singles and then got a stolen base to move into scoring position, but Linford stopped them there holding the Cyclones to the lone run in the seventh.
In six games this week, Linford threw four complete game victories, had two relief appearances in which she earned a win and picked up her team-leading third save of the year. In 32.2 innings she allowed 21 hits, struck out 23 batters and gave up four earned runs for a 1.10 ERA.
San Jose State 4, Iowa State 1 (Mar 11, 2017 at Davis, Calif.)
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Iowa State.......... 000 000 1 - 1 6 1 (9-12)
San Jose State...... 000 022 X - 4 3 0 (17-9)
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Pitchers: Iowa State - Weilbacher; Sanders(5) and Bosworth. San Jose State - Linford, Katelyn and Luna, Alexandra.
Win-LINFORD, Katelyn(11-2) Loss-Weilbacher(4-5) T-1:58 A-58
HR ISU - Williams.
Game: ISU-SJ