March 29, 2018
SAN DIEGO -
San Diego State 3, Boise State 1
Shelby Thompson singled in Janina Jusay to break a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the sixth inning and later scored on a bases loaded walk by Molly Sturdivant to give San Diego State a 3-1 victory over Boise State in the series opener Thursday night at SDSU Softball Stadium. The win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Aztecs (10-21, 1-3 MW).
Tied 1-1 after five innings, Kelsey Munoz led off the bottom of the sixth with a single to right field and advanced all the way to third after the ball scooted under Ashlyn Adams' glove. Jusay replaced Munoz at third and scored one batter later on Thompson's single up the middle. SDSU then loaded the bases on a Zaria Meshack single and a Katie Byrd walk, before Molly Sturdivant drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch to score Thompson with the insurance run. Bronco (21-11, 4-3 MW) pitcher Kelsey Broadus, however, struck out Taylor Adams to keep the damage to a minimum. Broadus also got out of a bases loaded jam in the first inning.
San Diego State got on the scoreboard in the fourth as Thompson drew a two-out walk, stole second and scored when Meshack ripped a double off the glove of BS third baseman Alison Seng.
Boise State evened it up in the fifth when Kora Wade's single up the middle plated Adams. After a visit to the circle by Aztec head coach Kathy Van Wyk, Marissa Moreno got the Broncos' best hitter - Rebekah Cervantes - to ground into a fielder's choice to Thompson at shortstop. After Halle Hager reached on an error, Moreno got Jessica McKay to line out to Meshack in left field to end the inning.
BS threatened once more in the seventh against SDSU relief pitcher Alex Formby as Cervantes' long fly to deep left-center field with a runner on base was run down and caught inches from the wall by center fielder Kiera Wright. Formby (7-8) then got Harger to pop up weakly to catcher Sturdivant at the plate to secure San Diego State's first Mountain West win of the season.
Meshack had two of the Aztecs' six hits in the game and stole a base, while Thompson was 1-for-2 with two runs, an RBI, walk and stolen base. Byrd also reached twice with a walk and a hit by pitch.
Moreno started the game for SDSU and allowed one run on six hits over five innings against a Boise State team that came into the weekend ranked third in the country with a .351 batting average. She struck out four. Formby (7-8), meanwhile, yielded one hit and a walk over two scoreless innings of relief to pick up the win.
STAT OF THE GAME
The game featured a combined 19 runners on base (10 for SDSU, nine for BSU) and eight errors (five for BSU, three for SDSU). The eight combined errors matches the most in an Aztec game this season (also vs. Bethune-Cookman on Feb. 24). San Diego State has won both of those games (3-2 in eight innings vs. Bethune-Cookman and 3-1 tonight vs. Boise State).
NOTE I
The Aztecs snapped a seven-game losing streak (now 2-15 this year) when being outhit.
NOTE II
SDSU improved to 8-4 on the season when scoring just three or more runs.
UP NEXT
San Diego State continues its weekend series with Boise State with the second game at 6 p.m. PT Friday at SDSU Softball Stadium.
San Diego State 3, Boise State 1
Boise State (21-11, 4-3 MW) 000 010 0 -- 1 7 5
San Diego State (10-21, 1-3 MW) 000 102 x -- 3 6 3
Broadus and Pearson; Moreno, Formby (6) and Sturdivant
W - Formby, 7-8; L - Broadus, 7-5