By Madyson Montoya and Ernie Gonzalez
After finishing off a 46-hour paused game with a commanding 8-3 win over Nevada, San Jose State softball wasn’t able to sweep the Wolf Pack in game 2 of the doubleheader Saturday falling by a run.
With their flight leaving from Reno less than two hours away, the Spartans were stuck at Hixon field up 6-5 on the Wolf Pack after five frames.
The clock struck 1 p.m. and head coach Peter Turner had to make decision whether to play on, or head home and get booed off the field.
They played until the seventh, and Nevada would tack on a run in the sixth and another in the seventh, ultimately handing SJSU their second conference loss of the season.
The only other conference loss for the Spartans was against the Boise State Broncos in a similar double header situation.
Freshman Caroline Bowman got the start for the Spartans and was going for her 13th win of the year.
She came out shaky, giving up 5 runs, all earned and six hits in the first two innings.
But the Spartan offense hung in there.
Senior center fielder Brittany Abacherli stepped up to the plate in the third inning, sending a three-run homerun over the right centerfield fence to knot the game at three.
It didn’t take long for Nevada’s Kenzi Goins to respond with a homerun of her own in the bottom of the third, creating a Wolfpack lead 5-3.
In the fourth, the Spartans battled back, with freshman Desiree Reyes scoring on a wild pitch.
Later in the inning, sophomore Kaelin Amrein hit a two-run homerun out to left field, putting the Spartans in the lead 6-5.
Neither teams were able to put up any runs in the fifth inning.
Unable to put up any runs in the top of the sixth, the Spartans were banking on their one-run lead to last until they had to leave for the airport.
That didn’t stop Nevada from tying up the game 6-6, as they did so in the home half with a sac fly.
In the seventh, the Wolf Pack’s Jessica Sellers hit a RBI single to right field, ending it.
SJSU still sits in first place in the Mountain West, but it is now 9-2 heading into conference weekend No. 5.
SJSU’s next opponent will be rival Fresno State on Friday.
