San Jose, Calif. -- San Jose State baseball had a combined shutout and belted 11 hits in a 10-0 win over Pacific on February 16 at municipal Stadium.
San Jose State left-handed starter David Wayne Russo scattered four hits in 6.0 innings pitched and struck out two before head coach Dave Nakama turned things over to the bullpen. Daniel Chavez came on to pitch at the beginning of the seventh inning and went the rest of the way, completing the combined shutout and earning a save.
"David did a good job of getting ahead early in the count," said Nakama. "Both guys threw a lot of quality strikes and that's what got it done for us today."
Four Spartans had multi-hit games and six different hitters tallied an RBI. Matt Carroll started the game at first base and had a career-high three hits to go along with 2 RBI and two runs scored. Andre Mercurio, Nick Schulz and Jacob Valdez all registered two hits and an RBI in the game.
San Jose State got on the board first with two runs in the third inning and another one in the fourth. It was the sixth inning though that the Spartans broke things open by putting up six runs on five hits and two Pacific errors.
Schulz, who had a two-RBI single in the third, was the first to score in the sixth off of a Valdez single making it 4-0. After a walk to Carroll with the bases loaded, Ricky Acosta stepped up and knocked a two-RBI to make it 7-0 Spartans. San Jose State tacked on two more runs in the inning with a Mercurio single that scored Carroll and a sacrifice fly by Tim Quiery that scored Acosta making it 9-0.
"Carroll has been swinging it well in practice," Nakama said. "He has made some adjustments that have helped him, and he certainly took advantage of his opportunity today."
Erik Lockwood collected three of Pacific's six hits in the game, going 3-for3. Haberman gave up six hits and four earned runs in 5.0 innings of work. The Tigers' three errors gives them a total of seven in the last two games.
"We just talk about playing hard and playing the right way," Nakama said. We came out with good energy and we made the routine plays."
The series concludes Sunday with game three at Klein Family Field in Stockton, Calif. Right-hander D.J. Slaton is scheduled to start for the Spartans and Michael Benson will take the hill for the Tigers.
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