After finishing 2-2 at the Saint Mary’s Invitational in Moraga, California, last weekend, the San Jose State softball team will prepare for a five-game tournament at home.
The Silicon Valley Classic tournament will take place from Friday to Sunday at the Spartan Softball Stadium.
The Spartans will face Saint Mary’s, Northern Colorado, Sacramento State and University of California, Santa Barbra.
SJSU has not gotten off to a great start to the season, amassing a 2-7 overall record.
Head coach Tammy Lohmann said this upcoming tournament will test the team’s character.
“On Saturday, obviously, we didn’t do such a great job, but, you know, we refocused on Sunday,” Lohmann said. “I think that’s the character of a team is how you can bounce back from losing two games on Saturday and coming back and taking one on the road on Sunday.”
She said it will be a priority for the Spartans to defend home turf.
“I think anytime you play at home, you want to be able to take care of business on the field and be able to defend your home field,” Lohmann said.
SJSU will prepare for a clash against Saint Mary’s College for the second time in six days. The Spartans defeated the Gaels on Sunday 5-0.
“We have like a little rivalry going on with them, you know, and we really compete when it comes to them,” senior pitcher Jenessa Ullegue said. “So I’m excited to see how it goes. It can go either way.”
Lohmann said the Spartans are looking forward to other teams such as Sacramento State and Saint Mary’s.
“I think anytime you got Northern California teams playing against each other, everybody’s kind of trying to take one from each other,” said Lohmann. “But we just got to take care of our business. We don’t need to worry about who we’re playing, but we got to take care of what we need to do as a team.”
Junior outfielder Ashley Rico, who went 1-for-3 with an RBI double during Sunday’s game against Saint Mary’s, said she expects a comeback by the Gaels.
“We’re taking them to come out a little harder just because we beat them on their whole field five to zero,” Rico said. “So we’re going to expect for them to come up and be ready to try and do the same for us and our field.”
Last season, Rico went .290 with 19 RBI and 4 homeruns, showcasing a .983 fielding percentage with just one error on the year.
She said the SVC is a good opportunity to prepare for the upcoming season.
“I would say that the conference has better competition, just because there’s more talent, but we are approaching it,” Rico said. “I never take anyone lightly.”
She said the team is improving week by week, taking something positive from each game.
“We’re taking the positive mindset to see how we can get better and how we can approach the Conference and dominate,” Rico said.
Ullegue, who had 9 strikeouts and the second 7.0 inning pitched of her career, said she is confident about the upcoming game against Saint Mary’s College.
During the 2022 season, Ullegue recorded 117 strikeouts in 140.2 innings pitched, and she was included in the second team All-Mountain West.
She said she is focused on how to help the team to win games.
“I just try to work on mechanics throughout the week, instead of just throwing,” Ullegue said. “And then just getting my mental ray focusing on things that could have worked on the weekend before.”
She said the whole team worked hard to approach the upcoming games.
“We just focused on, you know, things we could work on the weekend before and we really dialed in during practice,” Ullegue said. “There are a lot of days where you focus on defense and then offense, and vice versa, and then as pitchers we’re just working on hitting our spots and keeping our composure.”
The Spartans are scheduled to play against Saint Mary’s College at 3:30 p.m. on Friday at the Spartan Softball Stadium.
