March 11, 2014
Davis, Calif. --- San Jose State let a tie ballgame slip away in the eighth inning at the hands of a four-run UC Davis rally on Tuesday at Dobbins Stadium. Like the four-run rally which the Spartans used to beat the Aggies just two days ago at home, the eighth inning proved to be the knockout punch in the 9-5 loss.
UC Davis broke the 5-5 tie with Adam Young's single to right field with runners on first and second. Evan Heptig slid just under the sweeping tag of catcher Kyle Gallegos to score from second on the play. Gallegos was then charged with an error on his throw attempt to halt Young from taking second base. Seth Batty, who began the play at first, took home on the throw which gave the Aggies a 7-5 lead.
A Steven Patterson RBI-triple and a sacrifice fly brought in two more runs for UC Davis to make it 9-5.
"You could just tell this was going to be one of those games where you had to keep scoring runs," said SJSU head coach Dave Nakama. "We got the ones we needed early on but we let it get away in the end."
San Jose State scored two runs on four hits in the first inning. Matt Carroll and Matt Lopez each had RBI-hits to jumpstart the offense which ended up with a season-high 14 hits.
After allowing two runs in the bottom of the first, Sheldon Daquioag gave SJSU the lead back in the third with one of his three hits, an RBI-single. Lopez extended the lead twice for SJSU with a sacrifice fly in the fourth and an RBI-single in the sixth to make it 5-2.
UC Davis tied the game with three runs in the sixth inning, two of which were charged to Spartans starter Logan Handzlik. The freshman, in his second start, threw 5.0 innings allowing five hits and four earned runs. James Glawe inherited two of Handzlik's runners in the sixth and both came in to score.
Ross Slaney (0-2) pitched the seventh and eighth innings for SJSU and took the loss. Zach Stone (1-1), the sixth pitcher of the day for UC Davis, earned his first win of the year.
Tuesday's game concluded the season series between the Spartans and Aggies, with UC Davis taking two out of three.
San Jose State returns to action this weekend at home with a three-game Mountain West series against UNLV (3/14-16).