Tuesday was a memorable day for San Jose State’s softball team early on in its season.
The Spartans (9-2) swept a double-header at home against Canisius College 8-0 and 3-2 to mark their ninth win in a row.
Head coach Peter Turner earned his 400th win for SJSU after the first game.
The Spartans swiftly took care of business in their first game, beating the Golden Griffins (3-4) in 5 innings, thanks to the NCAA softball mercy rule.
According to the rule, a game is considered complete if a team is leading by at least 8 runs after 5 innings.
The Spartans started strong by driving in 3 runs in the bottom of the first inning.
They continued to pile on in the second inning by scoring 4 more runs while keeping the Griffins scoreless.
Freshman pitcher Shannon Haddad struck out 10 batters in the shutout, only allowing four Griffins to reach base.
After his milestone win, Turner downplayed his accomplishments and focused on the team.
“Hopefully I have more wins than I have losses right now; otherwise I’d be in trouble,” Turner said. “It means a lot about this program and what we built here: more so the athletes we brought and not me.”
The Spartans and the Griffins geared up for another game not too long after the first one finished.
“Make them earn it. Get on top of the ball. For this team here, we got to keep punching and then we’ll find the knockout blow and we did that the first game,” Turner said.
Despite scoring 8 runs in Game 1, the Spartans went scoreless in the first 4 innings of Game 2.
“I think the first game we had a stronger mentality,” Haddad said. “We’d go out with our bats and just keep raking and I think the mentality in the second game just wasn’t there.”
In the bottom of the fifth, senior infielder Janessa Lozano hit a home run to tie the game after the Griffins scored in the first inning.
“I loved [Lozano’s] home run. That’s clutch what she did,” Haddad said. “It’s the difference [in] a one-run game and that’s really important.”
Lozano tied the game at 1 heading into the seventh inning.
The Griffins would then take the lead in the seventh inning on an SJSU error, putting the pressure back on the Spartans.
SJSU fought back and forced extra innings in the bottom of the seventh with a game-tying single by senior infielder Mackenzie Drake.
Two walks and a hit loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth for the Spartans. Senior outfielder Makayla Englestad then stepped up to the plate.
“I was just thinking that I just need to put [the ball] in play because any run would score and we’ll win,” Englestad said. “So, I was just thinking [to] make good solid contact and just do whatever it takes or wait patiently for balls to get walked. I was a little nervous but I was way more excited.”
Englestad swung and hit a walk-off single to send the Spartans home with a win.
“After, when I realized it left the infield, I was just super excited that we finally won after a long nine-inning game,” Englestad said.
She led the team with 3 hits in the game.
“Our slogan this year is ‘Make people beat us,’ ” Turner said.
