March 8, 2017
SAN DIEGO - Riding the momentum of a four-game winning streak, the San Diego State softball team travels to Cal State Fullerton for the Louisville Slugger Invitational this weekend.
The Aztecs (12-7) are scheduled to play six times over four days, including games at the host Titans at 6 p.m. PT Thursday, vs. Boston University (11:30 a.m. PT) and Harvard (2 p.m. PT) on Friday, and Eastern Michigan (10 a.m. PT) and Longwood (12:30 p.m. PT) on Saturday. SDSU also plays Harvard once again at 12:30 p.m. PT Sunday at Long Beach State.
The six games are San Diego State's final contests before the Mountain West schedule begins next weekend (March 17-19).
The Aztecs are coming off a 5-2 win over Detroit Mercy on Tuesday, and a 3-2 weekend at the San Diego Classic I.
Out of SDSU's seven losses on the year, 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), and six vs. teams that made last year's NCAA tournament.
San Diego State continues to swing the hot bad, batting .347 with 118 runs (6.2 runs per game), a .487 slugging percentage and a .410 on-base percentage.
Sophomore Molly Sturdivant leads the Aztecs with a .444 average (20-for-45), seven doubles, a .733 slugging percentage and a .537 on-base percentage, while adding two homers and 12 RBIs. Junior Jenavee Peres (Garden Grove, Calif.) leads the team with four home runs, while posting a .393 average and 20 RBIs.
Sophomore Katie Byrd (Santee, Calif./West Hills HS) (.387, 2 HR, 13 RBI, 18 R), junior Taylor Stewart (Bellflower, Calif.) (.381), junior Zaria Meshack (Vallejo, Calif.) (.365) and senior Sydnee Cable (Huntington Beach, Calif.) (.359, 2 HR, 23 RBI) are also batting over .350 for SDSU.
Four San Diego State players have pitched at least 20 innings, led by freshman Marissa Moreno (Torrance, Calif.) (6-2, 2.62 ERA, 37.1 IP), senior Erica Romero (Corona, Calif.) (3-1, 3.25 ERA, 36.2 IP), sophomore Julie McDonald (Carlsbad, Calif./Carlsbad HS) (1-2, 3.82 ERA, 29.1 IP) and junior Alex Formby (Orange, Calif.) (2-2, 5.17 ERA, 21.2 IP).
Cal State Fullerton enters the weekend with a 9-11 record, while Boston is 7-9, Harvard is 3-2, Eastern Michigan is 6-6 and Longwood is 6-10.