Softball sweeps road set

The Bulldogs have swept two straight WAC series after grabbing three straight at Louisiana Tech this weekend

Staff Report / The Collegian

It’s beginning to sound repetitive: Jamie Southern keeps on rewriting the record books and Fresno State keeps on winning.

The Bulldogs improved to 35-10 (11-1 Western Athletic Conference) with a three-game sweep of Louisiana Tech on Friday and Saturday.

Southern, who took the win in all three games in the series, became Fresno State’s all-time leader in shutouts Saturday, blanking an opponent for the 74th time in her career. Southern passed former Bulldogs All-American Terry Carpenter on the all-time shutouts list and moved into a tie for fourth all-time among Division I pitchers.

Southern (22-3) also posted the fourth 20-win season of her collegiate career, got her 112th career victory and 1,257th strikeout. She also cracked to NCAA’s top 20 in games started, finishing the weekend with 139, good for 18th on the all-time list.

Meanwhile, junior shortstop Christina Clark continued her assault on the record books, hitting the 50th home run of her career to move her into a tie for 18th on the NCAA’s all-time list.

Fresno State opened the series with a 6-0 win over the Techsters in which eight of the 10 Bulldogs players who got at-bats hit safely. Of those eight, five players had multi-hit games. Clark, Nichole Willis and Rachael Donaldson led the way, each going 2 for 4. And one of the players who didn’t get a hit in the game, Shauna Johnson, had an RBI. In all, the Bulldogs strung together 13 hits in the game.

Fresno State continued its domination in Saturday’s opener, knocking three two-run homers in another 6-0 effort. Clark, Southern and senior third baseman Leticia Pacheco all had two-run homers. Clark also scored two runs in the game.

In the series’ final game, Fresno State needed two runs in the final inning to break a 3-3 tie and take the win. Southern led off the seventh with her 10th home run of the season, and Willis later scored, driven in by Pacheco. Pacheco went 3 for 4 in the game with three RBIs.

Clark finished the series 3 for 8 with four runs and two RBIs. Pacheco was 5 for 11 with five RBIs and two runs.

The losses brought Louisiana Tech’s losing streak to 15 games.

TRACK & FIELD

Fresno State swept a five-way meet in San Luis Obispo over the weekend, winning both the men’s and women’s overall competitions. The men ended up with six first-place finishers, and the women had three.

Chris Berrian won both the 100- and 200-meter races, running a 10.27 100 and a wind-aided 20.47 200.

The time in the 200 would qualify as the best time in Fresno State history if it weren’t for the aid of the wind.

Berrian’s 100-meter time qualifies him for the NCAA regionals.

For the women, Andrea Buckner took first place in the 3,000-meter competition, running the race in just a shade over 10 minutes.