March 15, 2014
San Jose, Calif. --- The same offense that put up 18 runs on San Jose State a night ago was held to two runs on nine hits on Saturday afternoon. However, the Spartans only managed three hits of their own and fell 2-1 to UNLV in Mountain West (MW) action at Municipal Stadium.
John Richy (4-0) struck out six on his way to a complete-game victory for the Rebels (13-4, 7-1 MW). Singles by Tyler Olivet, Sheldon Daquioag and Mike Simonini were the only blemishes on the day for Richy.
For the Spartans (5-15, 2-6 MW), Jonathan Hernandez (0-2) pitched a season-high 6.2 innings in his fifth start. He scattered six hits and was charged with one earned run while striking out three. Ross Slaney and Logan Handzlik came out of the pen for a combined 2.1 shutout innings.
"I thought we pitched good enough to win," said San Jose State head coach Dave Nakama. "It was a great performance by all three guys, but we just have to do a better job at the plate. We played a little better today, but we still had plays in the field that cost us."
SJSU struck for the game's first run in the third inning when Tyler Olivet hit a sacrifice fly which scored Mike Simonini.
In the top of the fourth, an RBI-single by UNLV's Morgan Stotts scored T.J. White from third to even the game 1-1. One batter earlier, White was caught in a pickle between first and second, and eventually reached the second-base bag on an error by Alec de Watteville.
A sixth-inning sacrifice fly hit by Rebels first baseman Patrick Armstrong scored the game's winning run.
The Spartans will look to avoid a sweep in game three of the series with the Rebels scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Sunday at Municipal Stadium. Right-hander Kalei Contrades (2-0, 0.54) will start for the first time in his career at San Jose State against UNLV righty, Bryan Bonnell (2-1, 1.78).