SAN DIEGO, Calif. – McNeese softball picked up a 6-3 win over Brigham Young and held on for a 7-6 win over San Diego State to extend its winning streak to five games here Thursday on the first day of the San Diego Classic I, hosted by both San Diego and San Diego State.
McNeese (10-9) picked up a combined 19 hits on the day with four coming from California native,
Taylor Schmidt. Schmidt led McNeese on the day with a .571 batting average and scored two runs.
Baylee Corbello picked up three hits on the day and the save in the 7-6 win over SDSU.
The Cowgirl pitchers, senior
Rachel Smith and freshman
Alexsandra Flores both picked up the wins in the circle. Smith improved to 3-3 on the year with the complete game victory over Brigham Young (7-6) and Flores improved to 4-2 with her win over SDSU.
McNeese trailed BYU 1-0 after the first inning but tied the game at one all in the third inning on a RBI double by Schmidt. McNeese tacked on three more runs in the fourth when
Hailey Drew's bases loaded walk scored Corbello for a 2-1 lead. Two more RBI by
Erika Piancastelli extended the McNeese lead to 4-1.
The Cowgirls added single runs in the fifth off
Alexandria Saldivar's first career home run and one in the sixth on a fielder's choice by
Morgan Catron.
BYU scored two more runs, one each in the fourth and fifth innings.
McNeese concluded its day by holding onto a 7-6 win over a good hitting SDSU (8-6) team.
The Cowgirls held a 2-0 lead after the first inning, courtesy of a RBI double by Catron and a RBI single by
Tori Yanitor. McNeese added a run in the third for a 3-0 lead on a RBI single by
Justyce McClain.
San Diego State got on the board with single runs in the third and fourth to cut the McNeese lead to 3-2.
McNeese extended its lead to 7-2 by scoring four runs on four hits in the sixth and looked like they were going to cruise to a victory. The last two innings weren't as easy as expected for McNeese as the Aztecs scored two runs in the sixth to cut the lead to 7-4. SDSU scored two more runs on three hits with one out in the seventh against Flores to cut the lead to 7-6 before Corbello replaced her in the circle.
After Corbello gave up a walk and a wild pitch, she struck out Jaylene Ingnacio and got Frankie Orlando to ground out to third to end the game with the tying run on third and the winning run on second to pick up her first save of the year.
McNeese will face San Jose State at 11 a.m. and UC-Davis at 1:30 p.m. Friday before concluding tournament play against Oregon State at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
