San Jose, Calif. - San Jose State pitching limited Dallas Baptist to seven hits and one run, securing an 8-1 victory to even the series on Saturday at Municipal Stadium.
The Spartan offense backed up the solid pitching performance with eight runs on 12 hits and took command of the game with a four-run sixth inning.
With two outs and a 4-1 lead in the sixth, Sheldon Daquioag cashed in with an RBI-single that scored Mercurio from second base for the first run of the inning. Matt Lopez, who had three hits for the day, collected an RBI with a bases-loaded walk to make it 6-1 Spartans. Then, the clutch hit came from Matt Carroll; a 2-RBI single that landed just fair down the right field line, making it 8-1 San Jose State.
The first baseman Carroll knocked in a career-high four RBI and scored a run in a 2-for-4 performance. Mercurio finished the game going 4-for-5 with an RBI and scored two runs.
The Spartan bats handed Dallas Baptist starter Cy Sneed his first loss of the season. Sneed left the game after giving up seven hits and four earned runs in 4.1 innings.
Spartans' starter D.J. Slaton allowed one run on two hits in 5.0 innings of work to earn his first win of the season. Reliever Kyle Hassna took over on the hill for San Jose State to start the sixth inning and closed out the final four frames, giving up five hits and no runs.
"To hold that team to only one run means you had pretty good pitching," said Spartan head coach Dave Nakama. "Slaton did a good job of getting himself out of some early jams and he kept us in the game."
The win gives San Jose State (7-16, 1-1 WAC) their first Western Athletic Conference victory of the year. It also evens the three-game series with Dallas Baptist (12-11, 1-1 WAC) at one a piece with the rubber-match scheduled for Sunday at 12:00 p.m.
Righty Jason Kafka (1-1, 5.40) will take the hill in the series finale for SJSU against DBU's Cody Beam (1-0, 3.77).