SANTA CLARA, CA - The Fairleigh Dickinson softball team fell 3-1 against San Jose State Thursday morning at San Jose City College to open up their California road trip. After the Knights previously scheduled matchups against the Spartans and Santa Clara University were canceled due to inclement weather, FDU opened up the west coast swing with a loss to push their record to 4-10.
The Knights return to action on Friday when they take on Sacramento State at 12:30 p.m. EST.
The Knights and Spartans clashed in what had all the makings of a classic defensive battle Thursday morning, as SJS pitcher Caroline Bowman scattered six hits and one earned run over five innings of action en route to picking up the victory.
After shutting down the Knights with a 1-2-3 first-inning, the Spartans had a chance to take an early lead after Cassidy Clark smacked a two-out single up the middle, however FDU pitcher
Abby England manged to get a pop out to end the inning and strand Clark at first.
Holly Mercier managed to draw a walk one inning later, however the Knights could not muster anything again at the plate. The Spartans again threatened to take the lead after back to back singles in the bottom of the second put runners in scoring position, however England popped up back to back batters to end the San Jose rally for the second straight inning.
The freshman was tested again in the third. After giving up back-to-back singles to lead off the inning, England retired three straight Spartan batters to keep SJS off the scoreboard.
FDU had its best chance to break the game open at the top of the fourth inning when
Jaymee Jackson lead off with an infield single and advanced to second courtesy of a
Madison Emerson SAC bunt.
Serena Meehan smacked a single up the middle to push Jackson to third, however the rally stalled out the next at bat after Mercier reached on a fielders choice that saw Meehan thrown out at second.
The dam finally broke for the Spartans in the bottom of the fifth when Clark came to the plate with two runners on smashed a homerun over the center field fence to give SJS a 3-0 lead.
The Knights recouped one in the top of the sixth frame when Emerson scored off of a fielders choice, however the comeback attempt fell short in th 7th.
England went 4.1 innings, giving up seven hits and three earned runs to earn her second loss of the season (2-2). Meehan went 1-3 with an RBI at the plate for the Knights.
