San José, Calif.—The San José State softball team split a pair of games on Friday, defeating Saint Mary's, 5-1, before falling to UC Santa Barbara, 4-0, at the Silicon Valley Classic II at the Spartan Softball Field.
San José State 5, Saint Mary's 1
The Spartans used a four-run fourth inning to break open the game against the Gaels. The team scored four runs on five hits and the Gaels committed an error in the inning. Makayla Englestad started the inning by reaching base on a two-base error by the Gael left fielder. She then scored on a Cassidy Clark double down the left field line. Clark scored as Suzy Brookshire then doubled to center field, and Brookshire scored as Alyssa Graham tripled to left center. Graham eventually scored from third on a Mackenzie Drake single.
San José State added a run in the fifth inning as Englestad started the inning with a single to left. She eventually scored as Vicky Gutierrez drew a bases loaded walk. For the game, Englestad finished 1-for-3 at the plate with two runs scored. Unfortunately, she left the game in the sixth inning with an injury after being hit by a pitch.
Gutierrez had one of the defensive gems of the game in the sixth inning. Saint Mary's had runners on first and third, forcing a Spartan pitching change. The very next batter popped out to Gutierrez at first who then stepped on first base for the unassisted double play to get SJSU out of the inning.
Spartan starter Caroline Bowman picked up her third win of the season as she pitched 5.1 innings. She allowed just four hits and one earned run while she struck out four. Jenessa Ullegue pitched the final 1.2 innings to pick up her first save of the season.
UC Santa Barbara 4, San José State 0
The Spartans were held to a season-low three hits and shut out for the first time in 2020 in the loss to the Gauchos. The first three batters in the lineup recorded the only Spartan hits – Rayohna Sagapolu, Drake and Clark.
Freshman pitcher Ilona Sullivan suffered her first loss of the season (4-1), pitching three innings, allowing two hits and two runs in facing 13 batters. Caroline Bowman pitched four innings in relief as she allowed five hits and two earned runs.
San José State is now 21-5 on the season and plays #2 Washington Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. With a chance of rain in the forecast, please check sjsuspartans.com and the Spartan Softball Twitter feed, @SanJoséStateSB for weather updates.
San José State 5, St. Mary's 1 (Mar 06, 2020 at San José, CA)
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St. Mary's.......... 100 000 0 - 1 5 1 (6-16)
San José State...... 000 410 X - 5 9 1 (21-4)
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Pitchers: St. Mary's - SCOTT, Kayla; PEREZ, Eileen(4); RICHIE, Vanessa(4); MCCOY, Eryn(5) and
CHEW, Hannah; CASAS, Alex. San José State - BOWMAN, Caroline; ULLEGUE, Jenessa(6) and
GARVEY, Grace.
Win-BOWMAN, Caroline(3-0) Save-ULLEGUE, Jenessa(1) Loss-SCOTT, Kayla(2-4) T-2:19 A-108
Weather: Partly cloudy, breezy,
SCOTT faced 3 batters in the 4th.
UC Santa Barbara 4, San José State 0 (Mar 06, 2020 at San José, CA)
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UC Santa Barbara.... 010 300 0 - 4 7 0 (11-13)
San José State...... 000 000 0 - 0 3 1 (21-5)
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Pitchers: UC Santa Barbara - Noriega, Felisha and Thies, Teah. San José State -
SULLIVAN, Ilona; BOWMAN, Caroline(4) and GARVEY, Grace.
Win-Noriega, Felisha(4-2) Loss-SULLIVAN, Ilona(4-1) T-1:40 A-243
Weather: Cool, 48*, Wind 10mph west
SULLIVAN faced 1 batter in the 4th.
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