Feb. 27, 2017
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State continues its stretch of 19 games in 20 days Tuesday night with a 6 p.m. PT home contest against St. John's at SDSU Softball Stadium. Tuesday is also the start of a season-long seven-game homestand for the Aztecs (8-5).
SDSU is coming off a 5-1 week, including a 4-1 record at the competitive Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic over the weekend in Cathedral City, Calif. San Diego State defeated 2016 NCAA tournament qualifiers Oklahoma State (17-5 in six innings) and No. 17/17 Utah (3-2), along with Stanford (5-4) and New Mexico State (10-2 in five innings). The Aztecs' only setback was a 6-4 decision to No. 1/1 Florida State.
Out of SDSU's five losses on the season, four have come against top-25 schools, including three against teams in the top 10 (then No. 8/8 UCLA, then No. 8/9 Washington and then No. 1/1 Florida State).
Through three weekends of play, San Diego State continues to swing a hot bat, posting a .363 average with 83 runs (6.4 runs per game), a .489 slugging percentage and a .417 on-base percentage. Among the Mountain West leaders, the Aztecs rank in a tie for first in hits (135), second in batting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage, despite playing the best competition in the league. Consider that SDSU has played five nationally ranked teams, going 1-4, while the rest of the eight teams in the MW have played a combined eight games against ranked schools (0-8).
Sophomore Molly Sturdivant (Santa Ana, Calif.) leads San Diego State with a .533 average (16-for-30), while adding 10 RBIs, seven runs, five doubles and two home runs. Junior Taylor Stewart (Bellflower, Calif.) (.429, 3 RBI, 4 R), junior Jenavee Peres (Garden Grove, Calif.) (.422, 2 HR, 16 RBI, 13 R) and redshirt freshman Kiera Wright (Riverside, Calif.) (.417, 10 R, 7 SB) are also hitting over .400 for the Aztecs.
SDSU has received a balanced effort from three pitchers so far as freshman Marissa Moreno (Torrance, Calif.) (4-1, 2.66 ERA, 23.2 IP), sophomore Julie McDonald (Carlsbad, Calif./Carlsbad HS) (1-1, 3.32 ERA, 25.1 IP) and senior Erica Romero (Corona, Calif.) (2-1, 3.36 ERA, 25.0 IP) have all logged within 1 2/3 innings of each other.
The Red Storm heads into Tuesday's showdown with a 7-7 record after going 3-2 at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic last weekend. Highlighting its three victories were back-to-back triumphs over 2016 NCAA tournament teams Oregon State and Cal State Fullerton on Sunday. St. John's also has played then No. 4/3 Florida (L, 5-2) and then No. 6/6 Michigan (L, 12-2) this year.
The Red Storm are batting .282 with a .359 slugging percentage and a .364 on-base mark. Kaitlin Mattera leads the team with a .419 average, while Gretchen Bowie (.341, 1 HR, 3 3B, 4 2B), Christina Melendez (.321) and Monique Landini (.306) are also above the .300 mark.
St. John's has seen remarkable consistency from its four pitchers as Madison Morris (1-1, 3.44 ERA, 18.1 IP), Grace Kramer (2-3, 3.50 ERA, 28.0 IP), McKenzie Murray (3-0, 3.50 ERA, 24.0 IP) and Tori Free (1-3, 3.61 ERA, 21.1 IP) have combined for a 3.51 team ERA.
Following Tuesday's showdown, San Diego State co-hosts the 10-team, 25-game San Diego Classic I. The Aztecs will face McNeese State (3:30 p.m. PT) and Brigham Young (6 p.m. PT) on Thursday, Boston Univ. at 7 p.m. PT Friday, Miami Univ. at 6 p.m. PT Saturday and UC Davis at 11:30 a.m. PT Sunday.