By Zoë Woodward – Spear Reporter | Sophomore, Taylor Chillingworth at bat against UC Santa Barbara. Photo by Zoë Woodward.
San Jose State softball (1-5) fell to an 8-1 defeat against UC Santa Barbara (2-7) in its first game of the Silicon Valley Classic 1.
Even though SJSU were first to put points on the board at the bottom of the first inning, thanks to senior utility Reina Zermeno, this would be the only score they would put up.
The visitors played a great game on defence and ended the game with zero errors, compared to the Spartans two errors. Small mistakes made during the game caused big consequences.
There were balls not being fielded efficiently and an overthrow in the sixth inning allowing two batters to get home and further UCSB’s lead.
“I feel like today we showed up pretty flat. I think we need to come tomorrow with a whole different mindset,” Zermeno said. “We need to be ready with us and ourselves. It doesn’t matter who we are playing.”
Despite having two outs at the bottom of the fifth inning, it was the best chance the Spartans had of getting back into the game.
With a player on first and third base it seemed they had a chance, Spartan’s senior shortstop Ahmiya Noriega who was next up to the plate.
However, hope ended with her being struck out by the Gaucho’s senior pitcher Malaya Johnson to end the inning.
All throughout the game the Spartans offence seemed determined to try and get as many runs as they could.
The Spartans did manage to successfully steal a base at the bottom of second inning.
The visitors weren’t letting up their strong performance though and at the top of fifth inning SJSU experienced more pressure, as the bases were loaded.
To end the inning in style freshman pitcher Delaney Faus rose to the occasion and held UCSB off scoring any runs.
Much to the Spartans’ despair, the scoring continued right until the seventh inning.
Senior second baseman Jazzy Santos hit deep into the outfield. She was able to get to third base and help two teammates get home.
The Spartans were unable to make any sort of comeback in the final inning.
“We’ve got to come out and compete. We played some great competition last weekend and raised the bar a lot for ourselves and then today just didn’t show up in every element.” SJSU head coach Tammy Lohmann said.
SJSU will try to seek a win later today, against Illinois State at Spartan Softball Complex.
