Bronco Softball Team Takes Two From Albany

Chalk up two more for the suddenly-hot Boise State softball team.


The Lady Broncos won their 12^th in a row and the dominant pitching of the team continues to pay dividends.  Boise State took a doubleheader from Albany 6-3 and 8-1 yesterday at the Santa Clara Bronco Classic.


Albany ended Boise State’s scoreless innings streak at 41, but it didn’t happen until the seventh inning of the opener when they scored their three runs.  Junior Aubray Zell has become a force for Coach Erin Thorpe, pitching seven innings in a game that included a 12-strikeout performance  to get her fourth win of the season.  Zell had a no-hitter going into the fifth inning and she didn’t walk a batter.


The top of the Bronco lineup is really getting it done and that group was responsible for Boise State’s first two runs.  Kellie Caplan and Holly Bourke began the game with singles and moved up on an illegal pitch.  Allie Crump drove in Caplan with a sacrifice fly and freshman Devon Bridges came through with an RBI single to score Bourke.  Bridges has reached base safely in all 12 games of the winning streak.


Bridges’ two-out double just inside the left field line scored Bourke and Tazz Weatherly in the third.  Bridges was also part of sixth-inning scoring when she and Crump singled.  Vanessa Alvarez plated Crump and Bridges scored on Kelly Sweeney’s groundout.


Ashley Collier began the seventh on the mound but got into a bases loaded jam so Zell returned to close the game.  Bridges finished with a career-high three hits and also drove in three.


Crump picked up where Zell left off in the nightcap, breaking Aubray’s short-lived school record with an amazing 14 K’s.  Crump sent 12 of the first 15 batters to the bench as victims of a strikeout and registered her sixth complete game and ninth win of the year. 


Boise State broke on top in the bottom of the first thanks to an Albany error that allowed Caplan to score from second base.  Christina Capobianco sent a shot to center to score Weatherly in the third and Sweeney doubled to left center to place Crump to give Boise State a 3-0 lead.  Crump found the bases loaded in the fifth but worked out of it with just one unearned run scoring.
Sweeney came through with two more RBI’s to ignite a five-run Bronco fifth.  Bourke was again a key part with a two-run double. 


The Broncos will be tested next week at the Judi Garman Classic against Arizona Penn State, Washington and host Cal State Fullerton.