April 22, 2014
San Luis Obispo, Calif. --- Falling behind early in games killed San Jose State last week when it was swept by New Mexico at home. The trend continued Tuesday night when the Spartans fell into a 5-0 hole after three innings and went on to lose 12-5 to #1-Cal Poly at Baggett Stadium.
The Mustangs, ranked first in the nation by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's Top 30, had a 4-run seventh inning and was aided by three SJSU errors in the game. The Spartans had two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the first inning, but Cal Poly still found a way to score three times.
"You just can't do that," said San Jose State head coach Dave Nakama. "We let them get extra base runners all game and you can't do that against a team like that."
Spartans starter Jace Puckett (0-3) and first reliever Michael Wright combined to allow six unanswered runs in four innings. Throwing errors from the right side of the SJSU infield extended innings, and led to two unearned runs.
The Spartans (12-29) cut a 6-0 deficit in half during the fifth and sixth innings. Brett Bautista and Alec de Watteville led off the fifth with consecutive singles and SJSU got its first run when Andre Mercurio brought in Bautista with a sacrifice fly.
Bautista was in on the action again in the sixth with an RBI-single. Matt Carroll also knocked in Jacob Valdez, who had a leadoff walk, with a sacrifice fly.
Bautista finished with a season-high three hits for the third time this year.
Cal Poly (35-5) scored four runs on four hits in the seventh inning and turned a three-run game into a 12-5 lead that put SJSU away. Cal Poly has won 29 of its last 31 games at home dating back to 2013 and improved to 24-2 at home in 2014 with the win.
Slater Lee (3-1) allowed five hits and one earned run in five innings of work for the win.
San Jose State scored once in the ninth when Matt Lopez walked with the bases loaded to make it 12-5.
"The errors that we make keep extending innings for us," Nakama said. "If we make plays then I think we are in this game and in a lot of other games this year."
San Jose State continues Mountain West play this weekend at San Diego State. The three-game series begins Friday at 6:00 p.m.
NOTES: SJSU has allowed 28 runs in the last four games combined during the first three innings...Andre Mercurio's hit streak ended at eight games, but a hit-by-pitch extends his on-base streak to the team's season high of 17 games ... Matt Lopez's career-long hit streak ended at 12 games ... Cal Poly is a perfect 7-0 in midweek games this season.