IRVINE, California - The San Francisco State softball team remained perfect in NCAA Tournament openers on Thursday as they took down Western Oregon, 6-3, to move on in the winners bracket. The Gators return to the diamond tomorrow at 10 a.m. against No. 9 Concordia - Irvine.
- Michelle Castro stole second in the first for the 126th stolen base of the season to set a new program record. The swipe breaks the previous record of 125 that was set a season ago. The Gators (39-18) went 4-for-5 in stolen base attempts on Thursday to bring their season total to 129.
- Castro also went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and batted in, including a solo shot to left in the fifth. Tianna Jacques went a perfect 3-for-3, which is a career high for the freshman, with two runs scored. Katelyn Sturm also added a pair of hits while Sydney Jenkins had two RBI.
- The victory makes it four-straight NCAA Tournament opener wins in program history.
- SF State was stellar on defense, committing no errors for the 18th time this season.
- The ten-hit contest was the 25th double-digit hitting performance of the season for SF State and they improved to 21-4 in those games.
- Emily Mitchell fanned a career-high eight in her 16th complete game of the season.
- The Wolves got on the board first in the third, with Kennedy Coy leading off with a single to left and later coming around on an infield single by Ryan Whitaker.
- In the bottom of the third, Brylynn Vallejos beat out an infield single to second and Hayley Nunes sacrificed her over with a well-placed bunt. Castro then roped a double off the top of the center field wall to score Vallejos for the first run. Two batters later Sturm singled to left that scored Castro for the first lead of the afternoon.
- A run came across in the fourth as Jacques doubled to left-center and Samantha Alvarez sacrificed her to third with a bunt. This brought up Jenkins, who hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Jacques to put SF State up 3-1.
- Castro whacked her fourth home run of the year to deep left-center in the fifth to widen the lead to 4-1.
- With one down in the sixth, Jacques singled to left, and went to third as pinch hitter Andrea Hildan reached on an error by the first baseman and went to second on the miscue. Jenkins then bunted and placed the ball deep enough to allow Jacques to score from third. With Vallejos up, Jenkins attempted a steal to bait the throw down to second that allowed Hildan to steal home and make it a 6-1 lead.
- Western Oregon battled back in the top of the seven, with Ayanna Arceneaux singling up the middle and scoring on Tyler Creach's base hit to center. Whitaker scored on Rimer's groundout to Lehua DeLeon that cut it to three.
- Mitchell got the first batter she saw swinging en route to the eight strikeout performance. She earns her 17th victory of the season, which is tied for the sixth-most in a season in program history.
SF State continues on tomorrow at 10 a.m. against No. 9 Concordia - Irvine. Live stats and a stream will be provided.
