Junior Missy Penna pitched five and a third shutout innings in relief and junior Maddy Coon drilled a three-run home run to left field in the bottom of the third inning as No. 7 Stanford defeated San Jose State last night, 7-3.

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Jeff Keacher

Freshman Ashley Chinn, above, started for the Cardinal, but quickly ran into trouble against the San Jose State offense. Junior Missy Penna replaced her in the second inning, and was able to hold the Spartans in check.

Sophomore second baseman Shannon Koplitz also homered for Stanford, which had one hit each from eight different players last night. Five different players drove in runs for Stanford in its first contest since California broke a seven-game win streak in a 1-0, extra-innings game over the weekend.

The Cardinal (41-8, 6-6 Pac-10) went down early to the Spartans (23-29), but proceeded to score a run in every inning but the second to bury San Jose State in the squad’s last non-conference game of the regular season.

SJSU center fielder Sarah Taylor led the initial charge with an RBI in each of the first two innings, on a fielder’s choice and a sacrifice fly. The Spartans chased Stanford starting pitcher Ashley Chinn with three runs before the second inning was over.

Penna (28-7), the Pacific-10 Conference Pitcher of the Week, stepped in and calmed things down for Stanford. The junior struck out eight of the 19 batters she faced, including an inning-ending, swinging punch-out of Kelli Fangonilo with a runner on third right — Fangonilo was the first batter Penna faced.

Penna only allowed four hits and did not let a Spartan advance past first base in the game’s final five innings.

In addition to Penna’s damage control, the Cardinal found itself down only one run after two innings thanks to a sacrifice fly from designated player Erin Howe. After its lone scoreless half-inning of the evening, Stanford went on top for the first time, and for good, in the third inning.

After retiring the first two Cardinal batters, San Jose State pitcher Deanna Mauer (12-12) surrendered a single to Stanford catcher Rosey Neill and walked Howe. Coon then stepped up to the plate and smacked a 2-2 pitch over the wall in left field, giving Stanford a 4-3 lead.

Stanford kept adding insurance runs for the rest of the game ass Penna plowed through the Spartans’ order time and again. Koplitz led off the fourth with a homerun to left field, and senior third baseman Michelle Smith and freshman first baseman Melisa Koutz each hit RBI singles in the fifth and sixth innings, respectively, bringing the final score to 7-3.

The Cardinal will return to the field this weekend as the squad wraps up the month at home against Washington and UCLA. Stanford will play Washington on Friday before meeting UCLA on Saturday and Sunday. The Cardinal lost 4-1 at UCLA at the beginning of the month and split a pair at Washington.