San Jose, Calif.—A day of highlights was topped off with a walk-off win Tuesday night as the San Jose State softball team swept a doubleheader from Canisius, 8-0 in five innings and 3-2 in nine innings, in the Spartans home opener at Spartan Softball Field.
San Jose State 8, Canisius 0 (5 innings)
Spartan freshman pitcher Shannon Haddad made her home debut a memorable one as she struck out 10 of the 19 batters she faced in the five inning pitched. She allowed only two hits and walked one in her fifth win of the year.
The Spartans scored three runs in the first, four in the second and one in the fourth for the win. Cassidy Clark, Jocylyn Vidal and Mackenzie Drake each had two hits, and Makayla Englestad score three of the teams eight runs.
Spartan head coach Peter Turner reached a milestone with the win. The 14-year head coach recorded his 400th win at San Jose State.
San Jose State 3, Canisius 2 (9 innings)
A walk-off single by Englestad in the bottom of the ninth inning ended a dramatic second game to give the Spartans the win. Grace Garvey started the inning by drawing a walk, followed by a Rayohna Sagapolu single to left center. Ashley Machado pinch ran for Garvey but walked to third as Drake drew a walk to load the bases. Englestad took a 1-0 pitch up the middle to score Machado.
Canisius came out hot in the first inning, scoring a run to take the 1-0 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning. Spartan Janessa Lozano took the first pitch of the inning to center field to tie the game at 1-1. San Jose State loaded the bases with a Vicky Gutierrez double, a Drake walk and a fielder's choice on Englestad but could not drive home the runs.
The game stayed tied until the seventh inning when the Griffs scored a run on a Clark error on an attempted pick off play. However, SJSU responded in the bottom of the inning with a run. Garvey again started the rally with a single and was run for by Taylor Tiger. After advancing on a wild pitch, Tiger scored on a Drake single to right field.
Spartan freshman pitcher Ilona Sullivan made her home debut, pitching the first five innings and allowed just one earned run and three hits while striking out five of the 18 batters she faced. Haddad then pitched four innings in relief, striking out four and allowing one unearned run as she picked up the win to improve to 6-1 on the season.
The two teams play a single game on Thursday, February 20, beginning at 4:30 p.m. at the Spartan Softball Field.
San Jose State 8, Canisius 0 (Feb 18, 2020 at San Jose, CA) (Game 1)
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Canisius............ 000 00 - 0 2 2 (3-3)
San Jose State...... 340 1X - 8 10 1 (8-2)
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Pitchers: Canisius - Castro, Lauren and Paradowski, Kara; Czapkowski, Chelsea. San Jose State -
HADDAD, Shannon and MACHADO, Ashley.
Win-HADDAD, Shannon(5-1) Loss-Castro, Lauren(1-1)
San Jose State 3, Canisius 2 (Feb 18, 2020 at San Jose, CA) (Game 2)
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Canisius............ 100 000 100 - 2 7 2 (3-4)
San Jose State...... 000 010 101 - 3 9 1 (9-2)
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Pitchers: Canisius - Nicosia, Emily and Ho, Cassie. San Jose State - SULLIVAN, Ilona;
HADDAD, Shannon(6) and GARVEY, Grace.
Win-HADDAD, Shannon(6-1) Loss-Nicosia, Emily(0-3)
HR SJ - LOZANO, Janessa (1).
Nicosia faced 4 batters in the 9th.