March 20, 2004
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State softball team (19-16) won their third game in a row and third at the three-day San Diego Classic on Saturday. The 8-0, five-inning victory over Dartmouth was head coach Kathy Van Wyk's 253rd of her career, tying the school record for victories. Linda Spradley, coach of the Aztecs from 1984-94, went 253-372-4. Van Wyk is currently 253-200-1. The two split head coaching duties from 1995-96 and went 48-69. Van Wyk has two chances on Sunday to become the winningest coach in SDSU history, with Aztec games at 9 a.m. versus Buffalo and 11 a.m. against UC Riverside.
With the shutout, the Aztec pitching staff has now gone 29-2/3 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run. Cori Janelli (Visalia, Calif.) has allowed only three earned runs in her past 59.1 innings and no earned runs her past 14.2 innings. Today, she allowed four hits in the five-inning shutout, her fifth whitewashing of the season.
A two-run single by third baseman Kelcy Murphy (San Diego, Calif.) in the first got the SDSU offense going. Five more runs in the third put the game away. In that inning, six consecutive batters reached base and 10 came up to the plate as SDSU compiled five singles, one walk and were assisted by two Dartmouth errors and a wild pitch. Janelli had a two-RBI single in the fifth and then drove in another in the fifth.
Offensively, Murphy and Janelli each went 2-for-3 with three RBI, while center fielder Janna Kovensky (San Diego, Calif.) also had a successful game, going a perfect 2-for-2.
Following the Aztec games on Sunday at 9 and 11 a.m., the co-hosted San Diego Classic wraps up with UC Riverside takes on Central Connecticut at 1 p.m. The University of San Diego hosts a pair of Sunday games.