By Sara Bielaa (@sarabielaa )
The offensive struggle continued for San Jose State softball as it stranded 11 base runners and was shut out for a second time in its series against Fresno State, 7-0.
The loss marks the first time the Spartans (25-14, 9-5) were swept at home since joining the Mountain West Conference in 2014.
“Nothing changed from the first inning on Friday to the last inning on Sunday,” said head coach Peter Turner. “They flat beat us and there wasn’t much doubt about it.”
It was the same story as the previous two games with the Bulldogs (27-15, 10-2 MW) drawing first blood.
In the fourth, junior center fielder Vanessa Hernandez made it 2-0 FSU with a two-run single to left field.
Two innings later, FSU tacked on three more insurance runs. Sophomore catcher Hayleigh Galvan sent one over the fence for a two-run homer.
Hernandez hurt the Spartans again with a solo shot to make it 5-0 Bulldogs after six innings.
Freshman starting pitcher Danielle East was lights out again as she held SJSU to three hits in 5.2 innings pitched.
“It was tough loss. You have to give a pitcher credit where credits due,” said junior catcher Alyssa Avila. “It was a big weekend, so this one hits home pretty hard.”
A misfielded grounder and a dropped pop up from the Spartans brought in two more runs for the Bulldogs in the seventh frame.
After loading the bases, Galvan put the nail in the coffin for SJSU with a two-RBI single through the left side.
FSU held on to win to complete the three-game sweep. SJSU drops to second place in the MW conference after being outscored 19-2.
“We definitely struggled in just about everything,” said sophomore right fielder Kaelin Amrein. “Hopefully we come back in, try to figure out what went wrong and keep pushing along.”
SJSU heads to the Centennial State to face the Colorado State Rams (23-12, 7-5 MW) next weekend.