March 31, 2017
San Diego, Calif. - The San José State softball bats scored five runs in the first two innings and staff ace Katelyn Linford made it stand up in the Spartans 5-3 defeat of the San Diego State on Friday night.
Linford (15-3) picked her ninth straight complete-game victory and in doing so equaled her career-high in strikeouts with 12. She allowed six hits and three runs while not allowing a walk in seven innings of work.
The Spartans' (23-10, 3-1 MW) used the long ball to jump out to a 5-0 lead in the first two frames.
Brittany Abacherli lead off the game with a walk, but the next two batters hit into fielder's choices which brought Georgia Blair (4-for-4, R, 2RBI, HR) to the plate. Blair was facing an 0-2 count, against SDSU starter Marissa Moreno, when she crushed a fastball over the left field fence for her team-leading fifth homer of the season and a 2-0 lead.
In the second, Chelsea Jenner (3-for-3, R) led off with a double to left center. Emma Entzminger (1-for-2, R) laid down a bunt for a single. The San Diego State (18-14, 2-5 MW) third baseman's throw to first drew the first baseman into the baseline. Entzminger collided with her, the ball was jarred loose which allowed Entzminger to get to second on the throwing error and Jenner scored.
Three batters later, with two outs and Entzminger on second, Madison Aurin (1-for-4, 2R, RBI) ripped a shot to center to plate Entzminger and make the score 4-0. Blair followed Aurin with a single and Cassidy Clark (1-for-4, RBI) followed Blair with an RBI single. It scored Aurin for a 5-0 lead.
Clark's hit spelled the end of the day for Moreno (7-5), who took the loss. She surrendered five runs on seven hits and one walk in 1.2 innings of work. Reliever Erica Romero took over and worked the next 4.2 innings giving up just three hits.
While the SJSU bats were hot early on Linford continued to shine in the circle. She had at least one strikeout in each inning, picked up at least two in four innings and struck out the side in one.
Linford gave up a single in the bottom of the first and didn't give another up until the fourth. But in the sixth the Aztecs', with a .348 team batting average, the eight ranked hitting team in the nation, got to Linford.
Jenavee Peres took Linford's first pitch over the fence in left. After setting down the next two batters, SDSU got a single and Shelby Thompson took the first pitch she saw out to left to cut the lead to 5-3.
Linford regrouped and got a fly out to end the sixth and in the seventh she struck out the first two batters and induced a groundout to secure the victory.
The Spartans and Aztecs play game two of the series at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday.
San Jose State 5, San Diego State 3 (Mar 31, 2017 at San Diego, Calif.)
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San Jose State...... 230 000 0 - 5 12 2 (23-10, 3-1 MW)
San Diego State..... 000 003 0 - 3 6 2 (18-14, 2-5 MW)
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Pitchers: San Jose State - Linford, Katelyn and Avila, Alyssa. San Diego State - MORENO;
ROMERO(2); FORMBY(7) and PERES.
Win-LINFORD, Katelyn(15-3) Loss-MORENO(7-5) T-1:51 A-191
HR SJ - Blair, Georgia (5).
HR SDSU - PERES (9); THOMPSON, S. (2).
Weather: 65 degrees, sunny
Game: SJ-SD1