SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Portland State softball team dropped a pair of games against Nevada and Santa Clara on Friday's opening day of the Silicon Valley Classic at the Santa Clara Softball Stadium.
The Vikings fell to 1-6 but will have a chance to improve that mark in another doubleheader tomorrow. Nevada extended its win streak to three in its 7-1 win over the Vikings. Santa Clara moved to 4-4 after pulling out a 5-3 victory over Portland State later in the day.
Nevada posed a formidable challenge in game one, though the Vikings kept it close through five innings. The Pack opened the scoring with two runs in the third but the Vikings answered quickly. Alison Harris, who has been a consistent threat so far this season, cut the Pack's lead in half with a fourth-inning RBI that scored Logan Riggenbach. But the scoring ended there for the Vikings. The Pack finally got a hold of Viking starter Allicitie Frost, knocking a home run in the fifth before using a four-run sixth inning to run away with the 7-1 win.
Errors proved costly for the Vikings in game two. Santa Clara scored one run in their opening at-bat before capitalizing on two Viking errors in the bottom of the second to extend the lead to four. Portland State posed an early threat, stranding four runners in the opening two innings, yet a breakthrough didn't come until the fourth.
The inning began with back-to-back stand-up doubles by Alison Harris and Lorraine Alo to make it 4-1. After a pair of groundouts and an Alapese Matautia walk, the Vikings once again found themselves with two on and two outs; Maddie Thompson seized the opportunity, delivering a clutch two-RBI, two-out double over the right fielder's head, putting the Vikings right back in contention.
The score remained at 4-3 until errors haunted PSU again in the sixth, allowing the Broncos to tack on a run. The Broncos put together a three-up, three-down seventh frame to end things and clinch the win.
Despite stranding seven runners on base, the Vikings had their most productive game at the plate thus far with a season-high eight hits. Five of those hits were doubles, the most the program's seen in a single game since 2019.
Nevada managed to score four runs against Viking starter Sherreigh Nakoa-Chung, with only one being recorded as earned for the sophomore right hander. For the second straight game, Grace Kimball entered in relief. She shut down the Broncos' offense over 4.1 innings of work, allowing three hits and striking out two. Matautia reached base in all three of her at-bats on Friday, drawing two walks in addition to a double. Riggenbach (3-for-7) and Harris (2-for-5) led the Vikings offense as the only two to record a hit in both games.
The Vikings will shift focus to Saturday's slate which will take place in San Jose at the Spartan Softball Stadium. They'll open day the day against a familiar opponent, Nevada, at 12:30 p.m before a 5:30 p.m. contest against San Jose State. Any weather-related changes regarding Saturday's schedule will be posted on goviks.com.
