STOCKTON, Calif. – The Pacific softball team, fresh off its final non-conference home game of the regular season, opens West Coast Conference play as the Tigers take on Santa Clara in a three-game series starting with a doubleheader on Saturday, April 9, at Bill Simoni Field.
Pitching was the difference-maker against San Jose State last Thursday as
Vanessa Strong,
Avery Croxall, and
Amiyah Aponte shut down the Spartans en route to a narrow 3-2 victory. The group pitched seven strong innings, allowing only two runs on seven hits, and tallying eight strikeouts. Strong earned the start in her 17th appearance in the circle this season and kept the game close as the Tigers rallied from an early deficit. The redshirt junior from Oakley, Calif., recorded five strikeouts during her three innings of work, increasing her team-leading and career-high total to 61.
Aponte earned her third career save in the winning effort, pitching the final two innings to close the game. Aponte has become the dominant force within the Tigers' pitching staff, tallying an earned-run average of 2.95, the lowest on the team. The sophomore from Riverside, Calif., has reached career highs in multiple categories, including innings pitched (54.2), strikeouts (28), wins (three), appearances (19), and complete games (two).
Santa Clara comes into Saturday's contest with a record 14-21 and has dropped four of its last five games. The Broncos are fresh off dropping an 8-0 non-conference contest to Stanford, and currently sit in fourth place in the West Coast Conference standings. The team will also open conference action for the first time this weekend despite playing at Bill Simoni Field twice this season. The team took part in the final day of the Mizuno Classic on March 19, splitting with Marist and Iowa State.
Ashley Trierweiler leads the Broncos offensively, accumulating a .388 batting average in 35 games, and ranks first on the team in hits with 45. The Broncos have two other players batting over .300 as Emma Bickford is second on the team with a .349 batting average, while Allyson Ferreira has recorded 30 hits in 100 at-bats for a .300 average.
The all-time series between the two programs has been one-sided throughout history, with Pacific holding a 93-13 record since the 1978 season. The Tigers have held multiple lengthy winning streaks against the Broncos, including a 41-game streak that last for 13 seasons from March 10, 1978, to April 9, 1995. During that span, the Tigers outscored the Broncos 312-23 and scored 10 or more runs in 14 of the 41 games.
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