San Antonio, Texas - A career-day at the plate for Matt Carroll boosted San Jose State baseball to a 12-4 Western Athletic Conference (WAC) victory over UTSA at Roadrunner Field on Thursday.
The big 6-foot-6 first baseman had a hand in seven scoring plays for SJSU by belting out three hits, collecting a career-high six RBI and scoring a run. Together, his 2-RBI single in the first, and bases clearing 3-RBI double in the second, helped the Spartans jump out to a commanding 7-2 lead.
"Matt had a great day," said Spartans' head coach Dave Nakama. "He got a couple big hits with runners on base. Everyone got hits today with runners on base, and that was the difference."
San Jose State (8-18, 2-2 WAC) tied its season-high hit total with 16. Every batter in the lineup registered at least one base knock, with Carroll, Andre Mercurio and Ricky Acosta going for three each.
After the Roadrunners (15-11, 1-3 WAC) tied the game 2-2 in the bottom of the first inning, the Spartans exploded for five runs in the second. Michael Gerlach started the scoring action with an RBI-single to right field making it 3-2. Then two batters later, Carroll cleared the loaded bases with a double to make it 6-2. The next batter Nick Schulz traded places with Carroll on an RBI double to left.
"We did a good job sticking to the game plan after letting them tie the game up in the first inning," Nakama said. "Then Russo did a great job of throwing strikes for the rest of the game."
Making his sixth start of the season, David Wayne Russo went for a career-high 8.0 innings, giving up 13 hits and four earned runs. He struck out two and walked two en route to a win that evens his record at 3-3 in 2013.
Team batting average leader Sheldon Daquioag (.379) added a run for SJSU on an RBI-double in the sixth inning. He came around to score San Jose States 10th run of the game one batter later on Carroll's single through the left side.
The Spartans got two more runs in the ninth when Mercurio stepped up with bases loaded and smacked one into right-center for a 2-RBI single.
After walking a batter to start the ninth inning, Russo was lifted in favor of WAC ERA leader Kyle Hassna who recorded the final three outs of the game.
"When we get that early lead, we settle in and play better," Nakama said. "We need to win again tomorrow."
The Spartans and Roadrunners hit the diamond for game two of the series tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. CST. San Jose State will send righty D.J. Slaton (1-4, 4.00) to the mound to oppose UTSA's Jordan Pacheco (5-0, 3.41).