April 15, 2017
Santa Clara, Calif. - Madison Aurin hammered a three-run home run in the fourth inning to propel the San José State softball team to a 3-1 victory over Boise State on Saturday afternoon. In doing so, Aurin helped the team to complete a three-game Mountain West Conference series sweep of the Broncos.
For the second day in a row the teams engaged in a pitcher's duel. Through three and a half innings, Spartans' starter Katelyn Linford and Broncos' starter Christina Washington were virtually flawless. The only blemish on either scorecard came in the bottom of the first inning when SJSU's Casey Watt reached on an error by the Broncos' shortstop.
Watt (1-for-3) also got the first hit of the game, a leadoff single in the bottom of the fourth, but she was erased on a stolen base attempt. Cassidy Clark (1-for-3) followed Watt with an infield single and Georgia Blair walked to put runners on first and second. Aurin (1-for-3, R, 3RBI, HR) dug in and on a 2-1 count pounded a fastball to the left centerfield alley and out giving San José State (27-14, 7-5 MW) a 3-0 lead.
It's the second homer of the season for Aurin, who last year set the program's freshman home run record with 10 bombs, and ended Washington's day. Reliever Paige Reimann came on and got back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.
Linford had cruised through the first four inning and got the first batter of the fifth before Cassidy Edwards just beat out a bunt single for the Broncos' first hit. Tatiana Sorokina followed Edwards with a single back up the middle to give Boise State two base runners. A one-out sacrifice bunt moved both runners into scoring position.
Linford uncorked a wild pitch, which scored the runner from third, but then got a strikeout to end the inning with SJSU holding a 3-1 lead. It was the only earned run Linford would allow in 14 innings of work in the series.
Boise State (24-15, 6-9 MW) got one more hit, a bunt single in the sixth, but Linford (17-6) would cruise to the victory. She tossed her second complete game of the series, allowing three hits, no walks and struck out six. Linford's 17 wins are the most for a Spartans' hurler since Amanda Pridmore won 29 games in 2013.
In the final two innings, San José State would get two more base runners. In the fifth, Brittany Abacherli reached on the Bronco shortstop's second error and in the sixth Georgia Blair (1-for-2, R, 3B) tripled down the right field line, but neither base runner came around to score.
The Spartans will play their next two series on the road, beginning with a three-game series at Fresno State next weekend.
San Jose State 3, Boise State 1 (Apr 15, 2017 at Santa Clara, Calif.)
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Boise State......... 000 010 0 - 1 3 2 (24-15, 6-9 MW)
San Jose State...... 000 300 X - 3 4 0 (27-14, 7-5 MW)
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Pitchers: Boise State - WASHINGTON, C.; REIMANN, Paige(4) and LAMB, Morgan. San Jose State -LINFORD, Katelyn and Avila, Alyssa.
Win-LINFORD, Katelyn(17-6) Loss-WASHINGTON, C.(13-7) T-1:33 A-136