SAN DIEGO -- San Diego State stretched its winning streak to four games with a 5-4 win over San Jose State Friday night at SDSU Softball Stadium. The Aztecs (20-10, 4-3 MW) outhit the Spartans (15-18, 3-4 MW), 9-6, and overcame a late SJSU rally for the series-opening victory.
After a 1-2-3 top of the first inning, SDSU went to work in the bottom half as Bella Espinoza and Jillian Celis opened the game with consecutive singles and advanced on an infield fly by Mac Barbara. Cali Decker followed with a sacrifice fly to score Espinoza and AJ Murphy singled in Celis to give San Diego State a 2-0 advantage.
Adrianna Noriega scored on an Aztec error in the top of the second inning to halve San Jose State into the SDSU lead and Alyssa Grahman homered in the third to tie the game up at 2-2.
San Diego State jumped ahead again in the fourth when Makena Brocki's two-out single scored Jade Ignacio and Macey Keester.
Celis ripped off a one-out triple in the fifth before scoring on a Mac Barbara single.
The Spartans made it interesting in the seventh when Reina Zemeno connected on a two-out, two-run home run. Aztec left-handed pitcher Dee Dee Hernandez, however, got Ashley Rico to ground out to Celis at shortstop to end the game.
Celis was a perfect 3-for-3 with two runs, falling a home run short of a cycle, to pace SDSU.
Sarah Lehman picked up the win for San Diego State after giving up two runs (one earned) on just one hit and one walk over four innings, striking out four. Hernandez logged her fourth save of the season, allowing two runs on five hits and a walk, while striking out two.
THE NOTE
The Aztecs improved to 7-2 on the season in one-run games.
THE NOTE II
SDSU improved to 10-2 on the season against teams from the state of California.
STAT OF THE DAY
San Diego State has outscored the opposition, 28-9, in the first inning this year.
UP NEXT
The Aztecs look to clinch the series when it meets SDSU at 1 p.m. PT Saturday at SDSU Softball Stadium.
San Diego State 5, San Jose State 4
San Jose State (15-18, 3-4 MW) 011 000 2 -- 4 6 1
San Diego State (20-10, 4-3 MW) 200 210 0 -- 5 9 2
Uleggue and Hutchinson; Lehman, Hernandez (5) and Decker
W - Hernandez, 7-2; L - Uleggue, 7-5
HR: San Jose State, Graham (5), Zermeno (3)
San Diego State Edges San Jose State, 5-4
