Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Santa Clara
Softball Drops Home Opener
3/1/2003 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 1, 2003
FRESNO, Calif. - It was a beautiful day to play softball at Bulldog Diamond but the flat performance by Fresno State combined with a resurging program in Santa Clara resulted in a spoiled home opener for the Bulldogs.
Santa Clara's redshirt-junior right-hander Jaime Forman Lau, a transfer from Stanford, held the Bulldogs to just two hits and the Broncos pinned a 3-0 loss on the 'Dogs to break a 34-game losing streak to Fresno State.
Santa Clara scored three runs on five hits to improve to 10-8 on the year. Fresno State's sophomore All-America right-hander Jamie Southern walked two and struck out seven while allowing no earned runs.
Santa Clara scored all three runs in the top of the seventh inning with two outs. Bronco centerfielder Coresta Salas singled through the left side before catcher Roni Rivera attempted a sacrifice bunt but ended up safe on first by a Bulldog fielding error. After getting the next Bronco batter to strike out swinging, leadoff batter and second baseman Jenny Brown drilled a two-out two-run triple to right field to put Santa Clara up 2-0. Brown then scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-0 before Southern struck out the final Bronco batter.
The Bulldogs best scoring opportunity happened in the sixth inning. Freshman shortstop Christina Clark singled after hitting a hard shot back to the pitcher. Freshman third baseman Angelina Diaz reached safely on a fielder's choice sacrifice bunt. With runners on first and second and no outs, junior right fielder Lori Hoffman also hit a hard shot back the pitcher but the ball jumped into the Bronco second baseman's glove as Hoffman was thrown out. Moving the runners to second and third on that play, Southern and senior catcher Pam West were induced into groundouts and the Bulldogs' threat evaporated.
Fresno State (2-8) fell to 21-5 overall in home openers and 14-4 under head coach Margie Wright.
