March 11, 2006
Sunnyvale, Calif. - After a day of rain, the Santa Clara softball team finally opened up the first day of play at the NIST-Twin Creeks Tournament with a thrilling come-from-behind 4-2 win over Colorado State. Following that match, No. 6 California took out Santa Clara by a score of 7-1.
After today's matches, Santa Clara's record now stands at 8-14 on the year and will return to the field tomorrow on the final day of the NIST-Twin Creeks Tournament. First up will be Nevada at 9 a.m., followed by Iowa at 1 p.m.
In the first game, Colorado State was the primary aggressor after getting on the board in the second and third innings to take a 2-0 lead heading into the sixth inning. That's when the Broncos began their rally. Pitcher Liz Courter started things off by reaching first base on an error. Jenny Brown followed that up with a single, advancing Courter all the way to third. Jessica Clee then hit a sacrifice fly to center field that enabled Courter to cross home plate and cutting their deficit to one. After Courter went through the bottom of the sixth inning unscathed, Santa Clara brought out its offense with a four-hit inning, resulting in three runs and a 4-2 run that would end up being the final margin. Courter (1-4) picked up her first win of the season, while Jessica Strickland (6-5) took the loss.
The following match, California rode the strong arm of pitcher Kristina Thorson to shut down Santa Clara 7-1. Thorson (10-2) limited the Broncos to only two hits in picking up the win, while Jerrica Castagno (4-5) took the loss despite striking out six. Brown started off the first inning for SCU by getting onto first base after getting hit by a pitch. She subsequently stole second to put herself in scoring position. After Clee singled, Brown advanced to third and then scored thanks to a sacrifice fly by Shannon Linerud, putting up Santa Clara 1-0. However, it was all the Golden Bears from that point on, as they scored three runs in the fourth inning to give themselves a sizeable lead. Runs in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings ensured a win for California.
