San Jose, Calif. - A two-out RBI-single in the bottom of the 10th inning made Andre Mercurio the hero and made San Jose State a 5-4 walk-off winner over Texas State in Western Athletic Conference (WAC) action on Saturday at Municipal Stadium.
Two ninth-inning runs for the Bobcats (16-22, 8-6 WAC) forced extra innings where the Spartans (13-25, 7-7 WAC) pushed the winning run across with three consecutive singles in the 10th.
"These guys have been pretty good at being resilient," said San Jose State head coach Dave Nakama. "We've talked about it all season and I give them credit because they've done a good job all year with that."
The Spartans got off to a fast start with three runs in the first inning on four hits. Tim Quiery and Sheldon Daquioag each had an RBI-single and Matt Carroll knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly.
SJSU made it 4-0 in the third when Quiery collected another RBI with a single. It was Quiery's fifth hit and sixth RBI of the series.
Spartan starter D.J. Slaton (2-5) started off with five shutout innings, but Texas State got to him in the sixth with an RBI-double by Garrett Mattlage and Colby Targun's RBI-single, making it 4-2. He left the game after the sixth with a line of six innings, six hits, two earned runs, four strikeouts and three walks.
"D.J. pitched well today," Nakama said. "He put up a lot of zeros and had minimal walks. I think it was the best he has been in a while."
Kalei Contrades (1-2) took over out of the bullpen and despite giving up two runs on five hits in the ninth, picked up his first win of the season. Contrades threw four innings giving up six hits and two earned runs. The Bobcats scored their runs on RBI-singles by Kevin Sah and Morgan Mickan.
"Anytime you win on Friday and Saturday it's great," said San Jose State head coach Dave Nakama. "Now we have a chance for the sweep tomorrow and that would be big for us."
Mercurio, Quiery and Ricky Acosta all had multi-hit games for the Spartans who have tallied double-digit hits as a team in last eight games.
San Jose State will go for the sweep versus Texas State and a winning WAC record tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. at Municipal Stadium.