April 26, 2014
San Diego, Calif. --- San Jose State evened the Mountain West Conference series at San Diego State on Saturday with a 9-5 victory. A four-run ninth inning helped the Spartans win in a back-and-forth contest against the San Diego State Aztecs.
The game had four lead changes, with San Jose State coming from behind twice before breaking a 5-5 tie in the ninth. A leadoff walk and three SDSU errors aided the Spartans' four-run ninth.
A walk to Jacob Valdez and an error by the second baseman set runners up on first and third for Sheldon Daquioag, who bunted in the go-ahead run making it 6-5. The next batter, Brett Bautista reached on Tim Zier's second error of the inning which allowed Matt Lopez to score. Lopez reached on Zier's throwing error earlier in the frame.
Alec de Watteville collected an RBI on a fielder's choice to make it 8-5, and SJSU scored its final run on a wild pitch from SDSU's sixth pitcher, Orlando Meza, which made it 9-5.
"That ninth was huge for us," said San Jose State head coach Dave Nakama. "We gave them lots of opportunities throughout the game and then we put the pressure on them in the end."
Kyle Gallegos was in the mix when the Spartans scored in both the fifth and the seventh innings.
His fifth-inning double down the left-field line allowed Andre Mercurio, who walked, to tie the game 1-1. Gallegos scored two batters later to give the Spartans the lead on Matt Carroll's fielder's choice to the shortstop.
Gallegos scored again as part of a three-run seventh which gave San Jose State a 5-3 lead. He scored from third when Carroll laid down a bunt to the first-base side. Jacob Valdez had an RBI-single and Matt Lopez roped a double to right field that put the Spartans up by two.
San Diego State refused to go away, and scored twice in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game 5-5.
"I told the guys it's a gutty win for our team," said Nakama. "We hung in there and got runs when we needed to."
Gallegos and Valdez each had two hits in the game to lead the Spartans. Seby Zavala led the Aztecs going 3-for-3 with two runs.
Myles Richard (2-3) entered in the top of the sixth inning and threw 3 1/3 innings to earn a win. He replaced starter Jonathan Hernandez who scattered nine hits in five innings and allowed three runs. James Glawe earned his first save of the year.
Justin Hepner (0-1) pitched 2/3 of an inning and took the loss after allowing the leadoff walk that scored in the ninth.
San Jose State and San Diego State will battle for the series tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 p.m. at Tony Gwynn Stadium.