March 16, 2018
San Jose, Calif. - Madison Aurin tossed a complete game and Alyssa Avila had the big hit as the San José State Spartans defeated the San Diego State Aztecs 5-2 in the opening game of the 2018 Mountain West Conference softball schedule.
Aurin, a junior from Bakersfield, Calif., scattered three hits and struck out a career-best six batters in improving her season record to 6-7. Through the first four innings, she allowed just one base runner, a two-out walk in the second. The Aztecs' first hit came in the fifth on a one-out single, but Aurin left her stranded on the bases.
San José State (16-9, 1-0 MW) went in order in the first, but put up four unearned runs in the second.
Brittany Abacherli (1-for-3, R) got things going with a one-out single. Two batters later, with two outs, Desiree Reyes (1-for-3, R) singled through the left side to move Abacherli up a base. She scored when Rayohna Sagapolu reached on a fielding error by Aztecs' second baseman Katie Byrd. With Reyes and Sagopolu on the corners and two out, Avila (2-for-2, R, 3RBI, HR) deposited a 1-2 offering from SDSU starter Marissa Moreno (2-9) over the left field fence to stake the Spartans to a 4-0 lead.
SJSU got a runner on in the third and again in the fourth, but couldn't do anything with them. In the fifth, the Spartans loaded the bases with no outs on an Avila single, an Emma Entzminger walk and Kaelin Amrein (1-for-3) single. Cassidy Clark (1-for-2, RBI) drove in the team's fifth run on a sacrifice fly to left and the runners advanced to second and third, but the Spartans couldn't drive in another run.
In the sixth, SDSU (8-18, 0-1 MW) got its runs. Molly Sturdivant led off with a single and three batters later, after a pair of outs, Taylor Stewart hit a two-run homer to center to pull San Diego State to within three runs, 5-2.
But that was as close as they would get as Aurin induced a ground out to end the game.
The Spartans and Aztecs are scheduled to play game two of this three game series on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. at Mission College.
San Jose State 5, San Diego State 2 (Mar 16, 2018 at San Jose, Calif.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
San Diego State..... 000 000 2 - 2 3 2 (8-18, 0-1 MW)
San Jose State...... 040 010 X - 5 6 0 (17-9, 1-0 MW)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: San Diego State - MORENO, Marissa and STURDIVANT, Molly. San Jose State -
Aurin, Madison and Avila, Alyssa.
Win-AURIN, Madison(6-7) Loss-MORENO, Marissa(2-9) T-2:09 A-102
HR SDSU - STEWART, Taylor (2).
HR SJ - Avila, Alyssa (2).
Weather: cloudy
Game: SD-SJ1