San Jose, Calif. - San Jose State came up with just five hits against Louisiana Tech starter Phil Maton in a 6-2 Western Athletic Conference loss on Friday night at Municipal Stadium.
The Spartans had two hits through the first six innings against Maton, who pitched a complete game for the Bulldogs. Nick Schulz's RBI-single in the seventh and Ricky Acosta's sacrifice fly in the eighth gave SJSU its only runs of the evening.
"He (Maton) threw a lot of quality strikes against us," San Jose State head coach Dave Nakama said. "We had some noncompetitive at bats tonight, but you have to give Maton credit."
The Spartans fell behind 3-0 early after allowing one first-inning run followed by a 2-run blast in the second by Sam Alvis (3). The Bulldogs made it 4-0 in the fourth inning when Tyler Ervine hit an RBI-single to center off of Spartan starter David Wayne Russo.
Russo tied a career high with 8.0 innings pitched. He set the mark one week ago to the night in a win at UTSA. He fell to 3-4 on the year after giving up six earned runs on 13 hits.
"I thought Russo pitched well enough for us to win," Nakama said. "We need to have a short term memory and come out ready to play tomorrow."
San Jose State (9-21, 3-4 WAC) and Louisiana Tech (12-19, 2-5 WAC) continue the three-game series Saturday at 1:00 p.m. Righty D.J. Slaton (1-4, 4.76) will take the hill for SJSU while right-hander Jamie Gilley will start for the Bulldogs.