Aztecs Drop San Jose State, 9-3

SAN DIEGO – San Diego State won its fifth straight game on Friday, beating San Jose State 9-3 on Saturday afternoon at the SDSU softball stadium. The Aztecs (21-10, 5-3 MW) scored five of their nine runs in the first two innings of the game, while Allie Light limited the Spartans (15-19, 3-5 MW) to one hit in 5.2 innings in relief.

Both teams came out firing out of the gate, with each team getting to the opposite starting pitcher early, as each team scored three runs apiece in the first inning. After the Spartans tacked on three in the top of the first, it was the Aztecs who responded instantly in the bottom of the frame. After three of the first four batters walked to begin the bottom half of the inning, AJ Murphy was hit by a pitch, scoring Bella Espinoza, to make it a 3-1 game. After that Jade Ignacio singled to right, scoring both Jillian Celis and Cali Decker.

After that the Aztecs pitching staff dominated the Spartans. SDSU's Allie Light came into the game and dominated, throwing 5.2 innings of one hit softball. In the bottom of the second the Aztecs took the lead and never looked back. Espinoza scored on a Decker sacrifice fly to give the Aztecs a 4-3 lead, before Murphy tacked on two more runs with a single up the middle scoring Mac Barbara and Celis again, and SDSU took a 5-3 lead.

Neither team would be able to score over the third, fourth and fifth innings, as the game headed towards the later stages with the Aztecs up 5-3. In the bottom of the six however, the Aztecs tacked on some insurance runs. With the bases loaded Decker came to the plate again and singled through the left side, scoring both Espinoza and Makenna Brocki. Decker then advanced to second on the throwing error, which allowed Barabara to score from first and the Aztecs had an 8-3 lead. SDSU would add another run later on in the inning when Ignacio hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Decker, and the Scarlet and Black took a 9-3 lead to the seventh inning.

That was all the insurance Light would need in the circle, as she recorded her third strikeout of the game in the final frame, along with a groundout and a lineout to finish things off for the Aztecs.
  
THE NOTE
SDSU improved to 11-2 on the season against teams from the state of California.
 
UP NEXT
The Aztecs look to sweep the series when it meets SJSU at noon PT Sunday at SDSU Softball Stadium.
 
San Diego State 9, San Jose State 3
San Jose State (15-19, 3-5 MW)           300 00 00 -- 3 6 3
San Diego State (21-10, 5-3 MW)         320 00 4x -- 7 9 2
W - Light, 5-4; L – Ham, 5-9