San José, Calif.—Junior catcher Grace Garvey came up clutch twice for the Spartans as the San José State softball team won 6-1 over Canisius Thursday night at Spartan Softball Field.
Garvey had to come off the bench in the top of the second inning and catch after starter Ashley Machado was injured. Garvey got three warm-up catches before the game resumed, and she caught all six innings of starter Caroline Bowman and reliever Shannon Haddad.
In the bottom of the second, Garvey came up clutch at the plate. With two outs and two one, she took a 1-1 pitch to center field to score Mackenzie Drake and Vicky Gutierrez, giving SJSU the 2-1 lead which the team would not relinquish.
The Spartans added four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Cassidy Clark singled to left field to drive in Jessica Giacoma from second. With two outs, Jocylyn Vidal tripled down the right field line to score Clark and Makayla Englestad. After a Gutierrez walk, Drake had her second hit of the night with a single through the right side to score Vidal.
Bowman pitched the first 3.1 innings of the game, allowing seven hits and one earned run. Shannon Haddad pitched the final 3.2 innings in relief, improving her record to 7-1 on the season. She allowed two hits and struck out two.
San José State improves to 10-2 on the season with the team's 10th consecutive win of the season. The Spartans host the Silicon Valley Classic this weekend, facing California Baptist and Cal Poly on Friday and Yale and North Dakota on Saturday. Tickets can be bought at the gate for each day.
San José State 6, Canisius 1
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Canisius............ 100 000 0 - 1 9 0 (3-5)
San José State...... 024 000 X - 6 8 0 (10-2)
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Pitchers: Canisius - Cantley, Sarah; Churchill, Alexis(3) and Ho, Cassie; Czapkowski, Chelsea.
San José State - BOWMAN, Caroline; HADDAD, Shannon(4) and MACHADO, Ashley; GARVEY, Grace.
Win-HADDAD, Shannon(7-1) Loss-Cantley, Sarah(2-1) T-2:07 A-204