April 16, 2004
Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
SAN DIEGO - The streak is 15. San Diego State has now won 15 consecutive home Mountain West Conference softball games following a MWC doubleheader sweep of UNLV on Friday afternoon, 1-0 and 4-1. Pitcher Celena Velasquez (Tucson, Ariz.), who is feeling comfortable in a newfound closer role, earned the saves in both games and now has four in the last five Aztec games (and with a couple of wins in the past week has earned either a win or save in each of SDSU's last six games played). Center fielder Janna Kovensky (San Diego, Calif.), after seeing action in both games, has now played in more games of any Aztec player in history at 236, surpassing Sarah Hershman's (1999-02) 235.
In game one, the Aztecs took advantage of the lone Rebel error in the fourth inning when second baseman Joann Figueroa (Phoenix, Ariz.) scored from second on an errant throw to first from the UNLV second baseman. Figueroa had singled to right field to lead off the inning and advanced safely to second when an attempt to throw her out on a sacrifice bunt was unsuccessful.
UNLV's best scoring chance came in the sixth when right fielder Brittany Freight singled with two outs and stole second, but when she tried to advance to third on the catcher's overthrow of second, Kovensky nailed her at third.
Pitcher Cori Janelli (Visalia, Calif.) threw 6.2 innings of shutout, four-hit ball and Velasquez came in to retire the final batter with runners and first and second to complete the combined shutout, the team's 10th whitewashing of the season. Offensively, shortstop Meagan Hartung (San Diego, Calif.) reached base twice, on a double and a walk.
UNLV took a 1-0 advantage in the third inning of game two when the Rebels combined three singles with an Aztec error into a single tally. Figueroa tied the game in the fourth when she had an infield single, advanced to second on right fielder Bree Boyer's (Huntington Beach, Calif.) sacrifice bunt and, after she took third on a wild pitch, noticed that both the pitcher and catcher were near the Aztecs' on-deck circle retrieving the ball with nobody covering home and took off for the plate, just beating the sprinting catcher in a bang-bang play.
"(Figueroa) found home plate wide open and went for it before I even had a chance to say 'go'," head coach Kathy Van Wyk said. "We preach aggressiveness and if she had waited for me to tell her to go, she wouldn't have been able to score."
San Diego State took the lead in the fifth with two runs. First baseman Lacey Craft (Valley Center, Calif.) singled to lead off the inning, was pinch run for by Kathleen Galbraith (Orange, Calif.), who was subsequently sacrificed to second by Hartung. A walk issued to left fielder Erin Mahoney (Westchester, Calif.) and a single to right by Kovensky, which Freight almost made an outstanding running shoestring catch on but saw the ball bounce out of her mitt, loaded the bases with one out. A dropped fly by the UNLV center fielder allowed Galbraith and Mahoney to score and give SDSU a 3-1 lead.
A double in the sixth by catcher Danielle Touhey (Fresno, Calif.) set up her pinch runner Jamie Burton (Carlsbad, Calif.) to score when the Rebel pitcher committed an error to move her to third and Craft recorded a sacrifice fly to center.
Velasquez came on to start the seventh and retired the Rebels in order, which followed Deanna Richard's (Visalia, Calif.) stellar performance of allowing one run on three hits in six innings. Kovensky and Touhey each went 2-for-3 to lead the offense. Touhey's two-hit performance is her first since March 15, 2003, when the catcher went 2-for-4 against Eastern Kentucky in a 9-3 home victory.
The Aztecs are now two games up in the current MWC standings on second-place Colorado State, three up on Utah, four on UNLV and BYU and five on New Mexico.
Kovensky remains tied for the top spot on the SDSU career runs scored list at 126 with Kellie Nordhagen (1999-02), but her three hits on the day moved her into sole possession of second place on the career hits chart with 213, moving past Hershman's 212 and trailing just Nordhagen's 254. Earlier this season, Kovensky broke the career record for walks - previously at 62, set by Chrystal Friesen (1993-96) - and currently has 65.
San Diego State now hits the road for four games next weekend and two the following weekend. The Aztecs play doubleheaders at 1 p.m. MDT on April 23 at New Mexico and at noon MDT on April 25 at Colorado State. A twin-bill at 5 p.m. on May 1 at UNLV completes San Diego State's regular-season road schedule. San Diego State then plays its final five games at SDSU Field, starting with a non-conference game versus Louisiana Tech at 3 p.m. on May 4.
"Our confidence level is great heading into the road trip," Van Wyk said. "It is important that we have two good practices next week and keep on our roll."
MWC Standings Through Play of April 16
San Diego State (8-2 MWC, 29-18)
Colorado State (4-2 MWC, 28-11)
Utah (4-4 MWC, 14-23)
UNLV (4-6 MWC, 22-27)
BYU (3-5 MWC, 23-14)
New Mexico (1-5 MWC, 27-23)