SAN DIEGO – San Diego State completed a home-and-home series sweep over California Baptist in a 11-2, five-inning victory Saturday afternoon at SDSU Softball Stadium. The Aztecs, who beat the Lancers (5-13) twice last night (5-2 and 2-0), improved to 9-3 on the season.
SDSU jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Danielle Romanello's single to left field scored Alexa Schultz and Sara Lillie's infield single plated Nicole Siess.
CBU answered in the top of the fourth as an Abby Robertson double scored Makayla Jordan and a sacrifice fly by Maile Olsen allowed Michaila Harrington to score.
San Diego State, however, scored nine unanswered runs over the final two innings to finish with the run-rule win.
In the fourth, Jenna Holcomb reached on an infield single with one out, stole second and scored on a Jillian Celis double. Celis later scored on a single by Shelby Thompson. A sacrifice fly by Schultz plated Taylor Adams with the final run of the inning.
The Aztecs put the game away with six runs in the bottom of the fifth on only two hits, taking advantage of two walks and three California Baptist errors. Eliana Reyes got the first run of the inning, stealing second base and getting all the way home on a pair of throwing errors. Makena Brocki later scored on another throwing error before an Adams single plated Holcomb from second base. With two runners on, Thompson ended the game with a homer over the left-center field wall.
Adams was 3-for-4 with an RBI, while Thompson had two hits, a run and four RBIs for SDSU, which outhit the Lancers, 9-5. Romanello also reached base safely twice with a single and a walk.
Hannah Johnson picked up the win after pitching a perfect two innings of relief with one strikeout. Johnson is now 3-1 on the season. Marissa Moreno started for San Diego State and gave up two runs on five hits over three innings.
THE NOTE
The 11 runs were a season high for the Aztecs and matched their total from the previous four games combined.
THE NOTE II
SDSU outscored the Lancers, 18-4, in the series sweep and did not record an error over the 19 innings.
STAT OF THE DAY
San Diego State picked up its first run-rule victory of the season and first in almost a calendar year (last run-rule victory was a 9-0 win over Cal Poly on March 7, 2020).
UP NEXT
The Aztecs play at Cal State Fullerton for a doubleheader on Wednesday, beginning at 3 p.m. PT.
San Diego State 11, California Baptist 2 (5 innings)
California Baptist (5-13) 000 20 -- 2 5 5
San Diego State (9-3) 200 36 -- 11 9 0
Viramontes and Mangrello; Moreno, Johnson (4) and Langlet, Romanello (2)
W - Johnson, 3-1; L - Viramontes, 4-4
HR: San Diego State, Thompson (2)
Softball Run-Rules CBU, 11-2, for Series Sweep
