A four-run eighth inning was not enough for San Jose State to overcome an early deficit in an 8-7 Western Athletic Conference loss at UT Arlington on Friday.
The Spartans (11-23, 5-5 WAC) made three errors and surrendered eight runs in the first two innings, but got new life when Ricky Acosta hit a bases-clearing triple to make it 8-7 in the eighth. Walks to Sheldon Daquioag and Tim Quiery followed by Matt Carroll's base hit set the table for Acosta's big hit.
Acosta collected four RBI on the day and extended his hitting streak to 10 games.
Trailing by one in the ninth, San Jose State had runners on first and second with no outs, but UTA reliever Chad Nack retired Daquioag, Quiery and Carroll all in a row to end the game.
"We just can't give up that many runs early on," said Spartans' head coach Dave Nakama. "Errors killed us, and we just didn't play well from the very start."
Matt Shortall's two-run double started things off for the Mavericks (18-15, 7-3 WAC) in a six-run first inning. Greg McCall also knocked in two runs on a single later in the inning. A wild pitch, passed ball and a fielding error all led to UTA runs in the first two frames.
David Wayne Russo started for San Jose State, giving up 13 hits and six earned runs in 7.2 innings. The loss drops him to 3-5 on the year. Brad Vachon improved to 4-2 with the win for UTA.
Jacob Valdez scored three times for the second straight game and has now scored in each of the last six contests. Two hits on Friday extended his hitting streak to 10 games as well.
San Jose State and UT Arlington are back in action with game two of the series tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. CST. D.J. Slaton (2-4, 4.43) will start for SJSU while the Mavericks send Zach Thompson (3-2, 5.05).