By Marissa Scott (@marissascotttt ):
Sophomore Cassidy Clark’s three-run bomb to center field paved the way for a 3-1 win against Farleigh Dickinson University for San Jose State Thursday morning.
The Spartans (16-9) held the Knights (4-10) to one run and six hits on a stellar tenth start by freshman Caroline Bowman who improved to 9-0 on the season.
“Today wasn’t my best outing,” said Bowman. “My teammates had my back and the defense was great, so it all worked out.”
Bowman held the Knights hitless through three innings and pitched five innings while giving up the only run of the game.
Junior first baseman and pitcher Madison Aurin closed the game for the Spartans and pitched two shutout innings on her way to her second save of the season.
The SJSU offense hit well through the first four innings but could not find its way home until the three-run home run by Clark, her second on the year and her 15th RBI.
“We hit the ball well and we hit it hard, just right at people,” Clark said. “We played good defense and Caroline kept us in the game for us to get those couple of runs. We got the win and that’s all that matters.”
The Spartan defense played its seventh no-error game this season thanks to heads up playmaking. Freshman third-baseman Rayohna Sagapolu caught a rocket for the second out in the third inning to boost the defense.
In the circle for FDU was freshman Abby England (2-2). She gave up three runs off of seven hits in her fourth start on the season.
Knights junior third-baseman Serena Meehan got the only RBI of the game for her team in the top of the sixth inning off of Aurin, but the run was charged to Bowman.
The two teams played one inning Wednesday afternoon but the game was canceled and rescheduled for Thursday morning because of the rain.
SJSU heads into conference play with momentum on their side as they open up a three-gamer with foe San Diego State in Santa Clara on Friday.
“Sometimes this team looks really good and sometimes we play to the level of our competition,” said head coach Peter Turner. “I’d like to think that they’re gonna be ready and that they are going to compete at their highest level, like they have been.”