March 8, 2018
Long Beach, Calif. - After playing just three of six scheduled games last week, the San Jose State softball team came out on Thursday and won both its games to open the 2018 Louisville Slugger Invitational.
"We made some mistakes today which cost some runs, but not games," head coach Peter Turner said. "I'm not pleased with the runs but can live with them when we win games. But with that being said, there are still some things we are working on and cleaning up."
San José State 5, Boston University 3 (10 innings)
The Spartans scored two runs in the top of the 10th inning to break a 3-3 tie and defeated the Boston University Terriers 5-3 in the opening game of the 2018 Louisville Slugger Invitational.
"We played and pitched well against BU," Turner said. "I was very happy with the pitching and defense in the seventh, eighth, nine and tenth innings. We held them in check until we could put some runs on the board and win this one."
Beginning in the top of the eighth, the teams played by International Tiebreaker rules where the last batter from the previous inning is placed on second base to start the following inning. In the top of the 10th, with Emma Entzminger starting on second, Kaelin Amrein (2-for-5, R, RBI, 2B) singled to move her to third. Cassidy Clark (1-for-4, RBI) then flied out to right, which allowed Entzminger to score an unearned run on the sacrifice to put SJSU up 4-3.
Two batters later, with Amrein on second, Georgia Blair (2-for-4, R, RBI, 2B) doubled to right driving in the Spartans fifth run.
In the bottom of the inning, Caroline Bowman who came on in relief of starter Madison Aurin in the sixth, set the Terriers (7-9) down in order to win the game and improve her record to 8-0 on the year.
The Spartans (13-7) never trailed and through four and a half innings had built a 3-0 lead.
In the top of the second, Blair reached on a fielding error by the Terriers second baseman. A pair of groundouts by Desiree Reyes and Rayohna Sagapolu moved Blair to third and a Brittany Abacherli (2-for-4, R, RBI, 2B) single drove her in to make it 1-0.
In the fifth the Spartans tacked on two more runs. Abacherli led off with a double and two batters later Entzminger tripled to right plating Abacherli. Amrein followed the triple with a double bringing Entzminger (2-for-5, 2R, RBI, 3B) home and putting the Spartans up 3-0.
In the circle, Aurin gave up just a pair of hits through four, but in the fifth the Terriers got to her scoring a run on a sacrifice fly after a leadoff triple.
In the sixth, Boston University scored another run off Aurin on a one-out RBI double. That hit chased Aurin and Coach Turner brought in Bowman.
Bowman uncorked a wild pitch which allowed the runner to move up to third and a single scored her to make it 3-3.
San Jose State 5, Boston U 3 (Mar 08, 2018 at Long Beach, CA)
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San Jose State...... 010 020 000 2 - 5 9 1 (13-7)
Boston U............ 000 012 000 0 - 3 8 2 (7-9)
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Pitchers: San Jose State - Aurin, Madison; BOWMAN, Caroline(6) and Garvey, Grace; Avila, Alyssa
. Boston U - Dubois; Dolfi(5) and Heinen.
Win-BOWMAN, Caroline(8-0) Loss-Dolfi(3-3) T-2:30 A-0
Weather: Overcast
Dubois faced 1 batter in the 5th.
Game: SJ-BU
San José State 15, Cal State Fullerton 6 (6 innings)
San Jose State scored 14 runs in the final three innings, including nine in the sixth, to pound the Cal State Fullerton Titans 15-6 in six innings in game two of the 2018 Louisville Slugger Invitational.
"We weren't as sharp in the circle as we have been lately," Turner said. "When that happens, we need our hitting to pick us up and against Fullerton they really did. We struggled last week with the bats and it was good to see them warm back up."
There were seven Spartans (14-7) with extra base hits, six had a multi-hit game and four had multiple RBIs in the run-rule victory.
With the game tied 6-6 going to the top of the sixth, SJSU unloaded on a pair of Titans' pitchers.
Kaelin Amrein (1-for-5, 2R, RBI, HR) led off the inning with her second homer of the year. Two batters later, Madison Aurin walked and Georgia Blair singled. That was enough for Cal State Fullerton to make a pitching change, but things would get no better for the Titans (9-10).
CSF's Hannah Johnson gave up a double to Makayla Englestad (1-for-1, R, 2RBI, 2B), the first batter she faced, which scored Aurin and Blair. Desiree Reyes (2-for-4, 2R, RBI, 2B) followed that with and RBI double and Brittany Abacherli (1-for-3, 2R, 2RBI, HR) backed Reyes up with a two-run homer to left center and as quick as that it was 12-6 Spartans.
Alyssa Avila (2-for-3, R) was up next and she singled down the line in left. Two batters later, Amrein reached on an error and after a wild pitch the runners were on second and third. Up stepped Cassidy Clark (2-for-5, R, 3RBI, HR) and on a 3-2 pitch, she hammered a shot over the fence in left to make it 15-6.
Aurin, who moved from first base to the circle with two outs in the fifth, set the Titans down in order to earn her third straight win and improve her record to 4-6 on the year.
The Spartans used three pitchers in the game. Caroline Bowman started and went 3.2 innings. The freshman, who picked up the win in the first game of the day, gave up three earned runs, four in total on six hits. Desiree Severance went one inning allowing four hits and two runs before making way for Aurin who surrendered one hit in earning the win.
The game featured a combined 27 hits, 16 for the Spartans and runs went up on the board in each inning.
SJSU got the scoring underway in the top of the first. Emma Entzminger (2-for-5, 2R, 3RBI, 3B) led off with a single. Four batters later, after a pair of outs, a walk and Entzminger on second, Blair (2-for-4, R, RBI) drove in the run on a single to left center.
Cal State Fullerton answered with a run in its half of the second and took the lead with another run in the third.
In the Spartans fourth, SJSU scored five times on four hits and a Titans' error.
Jacey Phipps (1-for-2) led off with a single, Reyes followed that with one of her own and a walk loaded the bases. Pinch hitter Kristen Heffley then walked to force in the first run of the inning.
With the bases still loaded, Entzminger emptied them with a double to right field. Three batters later with runners on second and third, Aurin singled in the fifth run of the inning to put the Spartans up 6-2.
CSF scored two runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth to tie the game 6-6 after five and set the stage for the Spartans nine-run sixth and the win.
The victory is the fifth in a row for the Spartans, the team's second longest streak of the year and the nine runs in the sixth inning are the second most runs in an inning for SJSU this season. The only higher run total in an inning was the 10 spot the team scored in the third as part of a 15-3 drubbing of Idaho State.
San Jose State 15, Cal State Fullerton 6 (Mar 08, 2018 at Fullerton, Calif.)
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San Jose State...... 100 509 - 15 16 2 (14-7)
Cal State Fullerton. 011 220 - 6 11 2 (9-10)
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Pitchers: San Jose State - Bowman, Caroline; SEVERANCE, Desiree(4); AURIN, Madison(5) and
Avila, Alyssa. Cal State Fullerton - T. Dockins; H. Johnson(4); K. Grimes(6) and J.Valenzuela.
Win-AURIN, Madison(4-6) Loss-H. Johnson(1-3) T-2:23 A-90
HR SJ - Amrein, Kaelin (3); Clark, Cassidy (1); Abacherli, Brittany (2).
HR CSF - D. Hill (2).
Weather: Sunny
- Dockins faced 5 batters in the 4th.
Game: SJ-CSF
Things get a bit more difficult on Friday. The Spartans play UCLA and Long Beach State, both of which are nationally ranked.