Rams Complete Sweep of San Jose State - CSURams.com

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Next Game:

at Utah State

4/1/2022 | 4:00 PM

Apr. 01 (Fri) / 4:00 PM

at Utah State

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – There was no need to press, nor was there any feeling of concern.
 
The first weekend of Mountain West play just didn't go well for Colorado State's softball team, and while they were disappointed by being swept by San Diego State, the Rams still felt good about themselves. There were things to fix, but they could do that.
 
So, coming back home for a three-game set with San Jose State didn't feel like a turning point in the season, just a chance to regroup. Which the Rams did, completing a sweep of their own with Sunday's 6-5 victory over the Spartans, evening the conference mark at 3-3 and improving to 11-16 overall.
 
The Rams didn't get flustered. Instead, they became more focused.
 
"I think it was the determination and knowing more objectively what we need to work on and take the emotion out of it," shortstop Maya Matsubara said. "We're talking a lot about the mental game, and emotions are like distractions. Frustration and all that doesn't help us in any way, so looking at it in an objective way and what we need to work on really helped us this week fix those things and we got a sweep."
 
The team also took a different approach in closing out the sweep, jumping out in front instead of playing from behind. After rallying for wins on Friday and Saturday, the Rams pieced together a four-run first and used San Jose State's mistakes against them.
 
CSU loaded the bases without the aid of a hit, plating the first run on a sacrifice fly by Danielle Serna, who gapped three balls on the day without a hit to her credit. Then the Rams pulled off a double steal, with Ashley York scoring on the back end, then a Matsubara single platted a run and scored later on a Makenna McVay single.
 
Sitting in the dugout with a four-run lead was a much better feeling than digging out of a hole.
 
"I think taking the mentality of we've seen them two days now and taking what we've learned from the days before and using that against them and knowing we could beat them, we just wanted to come in here strong the first weekend at home and get that sweep," Michelena said. "We had that energy, and the team was playing full force. I think that was part of it."
 
Michelena did her part from the leadoff spot, collecting three hits and scoring twice, while Matsubara had two hits and drove in a pair. San Jose State was in a giving mood with five errors on the day. Matsubara's second RBI came on a groundout in the fifth, scoring Smith, who had singled and advanced on one of the miscues.
 
The team tacked on an earned run in the sixth when Michelena singled, later scoring on a Hailey Smith sacrifice fly.
 
The Rams were the opposite, playing clean behind Jetta Nannen in the circle. She was masterful for six-plus innings, and San Jose State couldn't solve her until the seventh. Nannen, in picking up her second win of the series, didn't flinch when Alyssa Graham doubled to start the game. Instead, she induced three consecutive ground balls to Kaitlyn Cook at third to get out of the inning without damage. She gave up six hits and walked two, but buckled down as SJSU had just two hits in 12 tries with runners on base, just 1-of-6 with them in scoring position. The Spartans' lone run through the first six was a two-out solo home run in the third by her counterpart, Janessa Ullegue.
 
"We're kind of just figuring her out," CSU coach Jen Fisher said of Nannen, who is now 5-2 on the year. "She's still setting in, I guess you could say. We're trying to figure out how far she can go and when we need to pull her. She did a great job, and we made a couple of great plays on defense."
 
Michelena had a running grab in the left-center gap for one, Cook produced nine assists at third and Peyton Allen and Serna both had nice plays on the right side of the infield.
 
"I think when we have our pitcher on and the defense behind her, it's unstoppable," Michelena said. "The defense always has the pitcher's back and I think that's a big part of it."
 
The Spartans did take a run at spoiling the day with four in the seventh, scoring all on grand slam by Graham. Nannen's work afforded her the right to go for the complete game, but a walk, a double and fielder's choice loaded the bases. A grounder produced a force out at the plate, but Graham hit a shot to right field which just evaded the outstretched glove of Smith.
 
Julia Cabral entered, picking up her second save of the series with two consecutive outs.
 
The sweep was a confirmation of what Fisher believes about her team, that it is a group with a great IQ and can play with emotion while not becoming clouded by those feelings. Her take on the weekend was the team responded to hardship and continued to build throughout the three days.
 
"I think there was some momentum from winning the game on day one," Fisher said. "We definitely rode that momentum into today, and I think that was very, very needed. We've been saying it all year as a coaching staff, we're better than what our record indicates. We feel we're preparing them better; I feel they're practicing hard. There isn't anybody not working hard or not working on things which went wrong and making adjustments.
 
"We just needed to prove it to ourselves."
 
That being accomplished, the team understands it all gets lost if the weekend isn't viewed upon as a launching point.
 
They will play out the Mountain West portion of the schedule alternating between road and home, starting next weekend at Utah State, with the same approach in place for this week of preparation. The Rams returned from San Diego State and took a hard look at their two-strike approach, which helped them cut down on strikeouts – just 12 this weekend in 84 at-bats, six of them coming in the second game.
 
"A lot of us gained a lot of confidence this weekend," said Matsubara, who was 5-of-8 in the set with three RBI and her first homer of the campaign. "We reiterated for ourselves that we are great players, and we are a great team, so I think it gives us a lot of confidence for the next weekend."
 

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