Feb. 8, 2007
SAN DIEGO - Freshman Brittany Knudsen (Escondido, Calif.) homered in her first career at-bat and junior Christina Ross (Santa Clarita, Calif.) pitched seven shutout innings to lead the San Diego State softball team to a 1-0 victory over No. 6 Oregon State in the first day of the Campbell-Cartier Classic at SDSU Softball Stadium on Thursday night. The Aztecs, who are receiving votes in both the ESPN/USA Softball and USA Today/NFCA preseason polls, improve to 1-0 on the season, while the Beavers (No. 6 in both polls) fell to 0-1.
Knudsen led off the third inning and, on a 1-0 count, laced a drive over the right field wall to give SDSU the only run it would need.
Ross (1-0) shut down the potent Oregon State offense the rest of the way as the Aztecs won their seventh consecutive season-opening contest. Ross struck out two batters over seven innings to earn her sixth shutout of her SDSU career. She allowed five hits, all singles, and four walks in the game.
Ross got out of a jam with some help from the Aztec defense after giving up a single and a walk to start the fifth inning. Ross allowed an infield single to Natalie Johnson but sophomore Monica Alnes (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.) quickly threw the ball to junior third baseman Taryin Casillas (San Diego, Calif.) who tossed it home to sophomore Erin Floros (San Diego, Calif.). Floros promptly tagged the Oregon State runner out at home plate. Following an intentional walk, Ross got the final two batters out on a forceout at home and a line drive to sophomore first baseman Melissa Owens (San Diego, Calif.).
Junior Megan McDonald (Glendale, Ariz.) had a leadoff double in the second inning and freshman Lindsey Marquez (Tustin, Calif.) singled in the sixth for SDSU's other hits.
The Aztecs will continue their play at the Campbell-Cartier Classic with two games tomorrow, a 4:30 p.m. contest with UC Santa Barbara and a 7 p.m. game against No. 10 Cal.
San Diego State 1, No. 6 Oregon State 0
San Diego State (1-0) - 001 000 0 - 1 3 1
Oregon State (0-1) - 000 000 0 - 0 5 1
Ross and Floros; McGowan and Ewing.
WP: Ross (1-0); LP: McGowan (0-1)
HR: SD - Knudsen (1)
NOTES: San Diego State is 10-1 (.909) in season-openers under 11th-year head coach Kathy Van Wyk ... The Aztecs have won seven straight season-opening contests with their last loss coming against Illinois-Chicago on Feb. 5, 2000 ... Since records were first kept in 1980, SDSU is 19-9 (.679) in its opening games ... The Aztecs have won their last five season-opening home contests ... Freshman OF Brittany Knudsen's home run in her first career at-bat comes 364 days (Feb. 9, 2006) after C Erin Floros hit a homer in her first at-bat.