SF State’s softball team met up with Cal State San Bernardino on Friday Feb. 13, and Gator pitcher Sonja Garnett couldn't have been more nightmarish to the Coyotes bats.
Garnett had the Coyotes in fits all day, as she pitched a nine-inning four-hit-shutout helping the Gators take the first game of a doubleheader Friday. Garnett got the win as she recorded five strikeouts and allowed only one runner to get past first base.
“I pitched pretty well earlier in the year in the Davis game but this had to be my best pitched game of the year,” Garnett said.
Garnett’s only scare came in the top half of the fifth inning as Christina Vaughn singled to center with a runner on first and one out. On the single, center fielder Chrissy Hildebrandt misplayed the ball as it rolled all the way to the fence. Hildebrandt kept with it and got the ball back in time to throw out Alexis Topper at the plate. With two outs, Garnett then got Samaneh Sadri to ground out and end the threat.
Even though Garnett was pitching great, the Gators couldn’t muster any runs of their own and the game went into extra innings. That didn’t hurt Garnett at all;she seemed to get better as the game went on. She was clocked on the radar gun as high as 63 mph, and in the last inning the radar gun was still showing 61 mph. She retired the last 10 batters she faced in the game, striking out two and not allowing a ball out of the infield.
“My arm felt fine and strong in those extra innings and I basically just took it one inning at a time when I was pitching,” Garnett said. “I knew I had to do my job out there because I was confident that my team would score a run to win the game.”
In the bottom half of the ninth inning, SF State finally scored that run. With one out, freshman outfielder Danielle Russo singled off Amanda Steele’s foot. Sophomore Lauren Dowell then walked to put runners on first and second. Rachel Darrow ended the marathon by singling to left field. Russo slid just past Coyote catcher Crystal Fraijo’s tag at home plate to win the game.
“When I came up to bat I really wasn’t even thinking about the base runners at all," said Darrow. "I was just trying to hit the ball hard somewhere. It felt really good to get the first win here on our new home field.”
The two teams went back at it in the second game of the doubleheader, but this time the Coyotes didn’t take long to get on the scoreboard. Steele, who got the loss in the first game, seemed to want to make up for the loss as she crushed a homerun over the center field wall to give San Bernardino a 1-0 lead. Gator pitcher Julie Terwilliger had some control problems in the second inning when she walked three batters, loading the bases. When Terwilliger finally found the plate, Coyote freshman Krista Hernandez nailed it, hitting a triple to right field, scoring three runs to give San Bernardino a 4-0 lead.
Sophomore Holly Pearce came in for the Gators to pitch and did a fine job holding the Coyotes at bay while SF State tried to mount a comeback.
Pearce pitched 5 and 1/3 innings of shutout ball, allowing only four hits while striking out three batters. Steele did a great job of pitching for the Coyotes and only allowed one run on a single and RBI by Kristin Bartholamay in the third inning. Steele gave up a total of just five hits and earned the win in the second game.
“I think our pitching is really good and I was really proud of it today. Basically, we just had one bad weekend last week with our pitching but they bounced back,” said Kristi Lansford, SF State head coach.“Sonja is tough and she pitched a great game today and I was really impressed with our defense as well.”
The Gators go on the road next week with games at Chico State on Feb. 20, and at U.C. Davis on Feb. 21.
