San Jose, Calif. - San Jose State got clutch hits from the middle of the order, and took advantage of Louisiana Tech's 13 stranded base runners in a 7-1 Western Athletic Conference victory on Saturday at Municipal Stadium.
Matt Carroll with a 3-for-5 day at the plate has now hit safely in 13 of the last 15 games and has a team-leading .360 batting average. His 2-RBI double with two down in the eighth inning gave San Jose State a 7-1 lead needing just three more outs to end the game.
Jon Nelson got the start behind the plate and cashed his chance in with two RBI on the afternoon. Nelson and Ricky Acosta each collected an RBI with hits in the fourth inning to give the Spartans a 4-1 lead.
"We always have good results when we stick to the game plan in the batter's box," said SJSU head coach Dave Nakama. "We stayed in the game and got the hits we needed to score runs."
Spartan starter D.J. Slaton earns his second win of the year by scattering six hits in 5.0 innings and allowing one earned run. He got out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the second inning by inducing two consecutive fly outs to keep the Bulldogs from taking an early lead.
"You have to give D.J. credit for hanging tough today," Nakama said. "I don't think he had his best stuff out there, but he got some big outs for us."
Kyle Hassna relieved Slaton in the sixth and threw 3.0 innings of shutout ball before turning it over to Kalei Contrades who recorded the final three outs.
Sheldon Daquioag and Nick Schulz also had RBI in the game for the Spartans. A single off Schulz's bat in the second inning helped the Spartans jump out to a 2-0 lead in the second and Daquioag put SJSU up 5-1 on a big sixth inning double.
"No we have a chance to take two out of three in back-to-back WAC series," Nakama said. "It would be big for our confidence."
The series finale and rubber-match between San Jose State (10-21, 4-4 WAC) and Louisiana Tech (12-20, 2-6 WAC) takes place Sunday at 1:00 p.m. Johny Melero (0-3, 7.02) will start for the Spartans and will face the Bulldogs' Trevor Petersen (2-2, 3.24).