May 12, 2017
Las Vegas, Nev. - In each of its four years in the Mountain West, the San José State softball team has improved is position in the final standings, and on Friday evening the Spartans reached the summit with its first Mountain West Softball Championship.
In 2014, SJSU's first season in the conference, it finished in fifth place. Then in 2015 the Spartans came in third and last season finished in second.
The team entered Friday's play with a magic number of one. If either the San Diego State Aztecs lost at Nevada or the Spartans defeated UNLV in any of the final two games of the season, San José State would claim the 2017 Mountain West Championship and the conferences automatic bid to the 2017 NCAA Softball Championship Tournament. It's the second time in the last five season's SJSU has qualified for the NCAA tournament, the last coming in 2013.
With the SDSU vs. Nevada game starting at 4:00 p.m. and the Spartans and Rebels getting underway at 6:00 p.m., San José State had the luxury of knowing what they needed to do.
Tied 4-4 in the bottom of the seventh, Nevada scored to win its game and hand the championship to the Spartans.
While that was going on, San José State jumped on UNLV 1-0 in the top of the first.
On the first two pitches of the game, Emma Entzminger and Casey Watt each singled to right and three batters later Brittany Abacherli hit a shot into the hole in between short and third to score Entzminger.
Unfortunately from there, with a wind that gusted up to 20 miles per hour, little went the Spartans' way on the field.
The Rebels pounded out 13 hits and scored nine runs over the next five innings to defeat the Spartans 9-1
In the bottom of the first, UNLV scored three unearned runs on three hits and a pair of Spartans errors. They added two more runs in the second to push their advantage to 5-1.
After Colette Riggs (10-4) set UNLV down in order in the third, the Rebels scored a run on a solo homer in the fourth and finished SJSU off with three runs in the fifth.
The loss snapped a nine-game winning streak, the team's longest of the year. The 13 hits allowed are the most the Spartans have given up in 17 games and equals the most by a San Jose State opponent in Mountain West play this season.
The final game of the series and the regular season is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.
UNLV Rebels 9, San Jose State 1 (May 12, 2017 at Las Vegas, Nev.)
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San Jose State...... 100 00 - 1 7 3 (36-16, 16-7)
UNLV Rebels......... 320 13 - 9 13 0 (24-27, 7-16)
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Pitchers: San Jose State - Riggs, Colette; ROGERS, Emily(5) and Avila, Alyssa; Luna, Alexandra.
UNLV Rebels - BURKE, B and HARRISON, K.
Win-BURKE, B(4-4) Loss-RIGGS, Colette(10-4) T-1:20 A-222
HR UNLV - BUENO, M (1).
Weather: Sunny with some wind
Game: SJ-LV2