April 11, 2014
Las Vegas, Nev. --- San Jose State allowed runs in each of the first four innings on the way to a 9-1 loss to #20-UNLV in Mountain West (MW) action at Earl E. Wilson Stadium Friday night.
The Spartans (10-24, 5-11 MW) matched the Rebels' (24-10, 12-4 MW) first run of the game in the second inning to make it 1-1. Sheldon Daquioag walked and scored on a fielder's choice hit by Brett Bautista. But UNLV broke the game wide open with eight unanswered runs throughout the next three frames.
"We just need to play better," said SJSU head coach Dave Nakama. "The other team is too good for us to go out and not play well."
San Jose State managed just three hits against Rebels starter Eric Fedde (7-1) who owns the league's second-lowest ERA. Fedde struck out eight, walked two and lowered his ERA to 1.69 in the win.
SJSU starter Johnny Melero (1-4) tossed two innings and allowed three earned runs on five hits. He was lifted in favor of Ross Slaney who allowed six earned runs on six hits in two innings. Four of the runs charged to Slaney came in with two away in the fourth inning.
Bautista finished the game with two hits for the Spartans. There were five Rebels with multiple hits in the game.
The two teams meet again for game two of the series tomorrow afternoon at 1:05 p.m.
NOTES: UNLV has now won the opening game of both series against the Spartans in 2014 by a combined score of 27-3...Jonathan Hernandez (0-4, 4.97) will start game two for SJSU...Jacob Valdez remains one hit away from sole possession of ninth place on the SJSU all-time career hits list.