San Jose, Calif. - Coming off a 2-1 series win at Fresno State to open Mountain West play, the San José State
softball opens the home portion of its 2019 conference schedule hosting Boise State this weekend.
San Jose State Spartans (22-10, 2-1 MW)
vs.
Boise State Broncos (23-5, 3-3 MW)
March 29 (6:00 p.m.), March 30 (12:00 p.m.), March 31 (12:00 p.m.)
Spartan Softball Field - San Jose, Calif.
LIVE STATS
Fans can view live stats of all San José State softball games, home and away, by accessing the Live Stats feature at www.sjsuspartans.com. Click on the link on the softball schedule page to follow the action.
VIDEO STREAMING
The Mountain West Network is your all-access passport to Spartan Athletics. For live and recorded video/audio of selected San José State softball home and Mountain West road contests, the Mountain West Network is your home. Go to the softball schedule page and click on streaming video, thenMountain West Network logo at top of the Spartans Athletics home page, go to www.sjsuspartans.com/video.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Keep up with Spartans softball on all our social media platforms. The team's Twitter handle is @sjsuspartanssb, Facebook page is /sanjosestate.softball and Instagram is sjsuspartanssb.
QUICK HITS
SCOUTING THE BRONCOS
Boise State enters the week with a 23-5 record. They entered conference play at 20-2, and are 3-0 in MW action winning a series against SDSU, but falling in one at UNLV.
The Broncos' .321 team batting average is the third best in the Mountain West and ranks 19th in the nation. Kora Wade leads the offense with a .415 average (39-for-94). She also leads her team with 30 runs and is 18-for-20 in stolen base attempts. Rebekah Cervantes has team-highs with nine doubles, 28 RBIs and is slugging .681.
In the circle, the Broncos have the third best team ERA in the MW at 2.29 with two pitchers who shoulder the majority of the workload. Gianna Mancha is 8-3 with a 1.90 ERA. In 70.0 innings she has 42 strikeouts, has walked 28 and opponents are hitting .216 off her. Kelsey Broadus has a 2.02 ERA and an 8-1 record. She has pitched 66.0 innings and has 44 strikeouts and 32 walks. Opponents are hitting .233 off her.
Head coach Maggie Livreri is in her first season in charge of a program at any level of collegiate softball.
This will be the 27th meeting between the Spartans and Broncos with SJSU holding a 16-10 advantage in the all-time series. In games played on the Spartans home field, SJSU is 9-3 against Boise State. San Jose State took 11 straight dating back to the 2015 season before the Broncos broke the streak to avoid the sweep last season in Boise.
BOW TOSSES A NO-NO
Caroline Bowman (So., RHP, Sammamish, Wash.) became the 13th player in program history to throw a no-hitter when she defeated the UMass Lowell River Hawks 5-0 on March 15. Bowman (8-4) faced one batter over the minimum and but for her own fielding error in the second inning would have tossed a perfect game. In the contest, the down-ball pitcher had one strikeout and recorded 18 of the other 20 outs on the infield. It is Bowman's first no-hitter as a collegiate pitcher.
LET'S GET THIS STARTED IN THE MW
In its now sixth seasons in the league, SJSU loves the opening series of Mountain West play. Overall the team is 15-3 in those match ups, and in 2015, 2016 & 2018 swept Boise State, UNLV and San Diego State, respectively.
In its five conference home openers, entering this weekend, the Spartans are nearly as successful. They are 12-3 in MW home openers, losing only one series, 2-1 to Colorado State in 2017.
HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE
Since opening Spartan Softball Field at the end of the 2018 season, SJSU is VERY comfortable at home. San José State is 14-2 this season and 17-2 overall since the opening of its new field. The field was opened on April 27, 2018, in time for the team's last home series of last season, and SJSU swept the three-games series from New Mexico by scores of 3-1, 2-1 & 3-1.
MADDY & THE CAREER LISTS
Madison Aurin (Sr., INF/RHP, Bakersfield, Calif.) can legitimately lay claim to being, by the end of her career, the best all-around player in Spartan softball history. Aurin ranks in the top-10 of batting average (7th - .342), on-base percentage (10th - .405), slugging (2nd - .566), home runs (4th - 26), RBIs (3rd – 143), doubles (6th - 38), total bases (4th – 303) and sacrifice flies (1st – 14). In the circle, she has the seventh lowest opponents batting average (.275), ranks tenth in fewest walks/7 inning (2.11) and is ninth in saves (3). Defensively she is first in fielding percentage (.991) and double plays turned (57), eighth in chances (1, 000), and seventh in putouts (889) and groundouts induced (376).
In total, she ranks in the top-20 of 36 statistical categories and is in the top-25 of 47. Wow!
FRESHMEN THREE
Freshmen Jenessa Ullegue (Fr., OF/RHP, Ventura, Calif.), Arianna Miranda (Fr., OF/INF, San Diego, Calif.) and Alyssa Graham (Fr., INF, Colton, Calif.) have had a big impact on the 2019 Spartans.
Ullegue has been doing it all since she arrived on campus. In the circle, she has the team's best record at 10-2 and its best ERA at 1.97. In eight starts and six complete games she has three shutouts and has saved two games. Her 71.0 innings top the team, as do her 54 strikeouts, and her .219 opponents batting average is best on the staff. In the Fresno State series she was 2-0 with a 1.24 ERA. In 5.2 innings out of the pen, she scattered three hits and struck out four.
With a bat she has the team's best average (.407), slugging (.593) and on-base percentages (.471) as well as OPS (1.064), has the third most hits (24), has the second most homers, is second in RBIs (16).
Miranda is second in batting (.326), tied for the lead in hits (28) and homers (3), is second in doubles (6) and third in RBIs (15). She has made 28 starts, in 29 total appearances, at five different positions, with a high of 16 starts in left.
Graham ranks fourth in doubles (4), second in homers (2) and is batting .236 in 16 starts and 23 total appearances. When she over the starting job at third base against Weber State (3/10) the Spartans ripped off 10 straight wins, before the team lost 4-3 in the finale at Fresno State. In those 11 games she committed just one error at the hot corner and has solidified the left side of the teams infield.
REGULAR PLAYING TIME WAS ALL IT TOOK
In her first two years Makayla Englestad (Jr., OF, Katy, Texas) made just nine starts and 65 total appearances and batted .237 (9-for-38). She scored 25 runs, mostly as a pinch runner, and appeared mostly as a late-inning defensive replacement.
Fast-forward to 2019 and with two starting outfield positions open, Englestad took advantage of the opportunity. She has made 30 starts in the outfield, 19 in left, 11 in center and one in right, and has been the team's leadoff hitter in 27 games.
All her numbers are up. She is hitting .290 (27-for-93) with five doubles, three triples and has 10 RBIs. She has a .409 slugging percentage and a .394 on base percentage which includes 13 walks, is 5-for-6 in stolen base attempts and leads the squad with 19 runs scored. She ranks third on the team with six multi-hit games and recently has an eight game reached base safely streak broken.
TURNER EYES 400 WINS
Head coach Peter Turner entered the 2019 season, his 13th leading the Spartans, with 355 victories. He is the only coach in the 33-year history of the program with 300 wins, with the next closest coach have won 201 games (Kathy Strahan - 1986-92). Turner's .535 winning percentage (355-308), entering 2019, is the best in program history and with a 22-10 record so far this season, his winning percentage is up to .542. In the last seven years, his program has won an average of 33 games per season and his team has won two conference championships and has finished only once lower that fourth place in conference standings.