April 8, 2014
SAN FRANCISCO --- The bottom of the order came up big and a season-high strikeout mark for Spartans pitching led San Jose State to a 4-3 win over San Francisco in nonconference action on Tuesday at Benedetti Diamond.
Kalei Contrades and Brett Bautista hit seventh and eighth respectively in the SJSU batting order, combining to go 5-for-8 and score all four SJSU runs.
"I was just seeing good pitches to hit," Bautista said. "I tried to stay ahead in the count and take advantage of some mistakes."
The two led off both the fifth and the seventh innings with consecutive base hits, and both times came around to score. Contrades led off the seventh with a single, and scored on Bautista's hit-and-run RBI double, which put the Spartans up 3-2.
Alec de Watteville singled home Bautista two batters later to put San Jose State up 4-2. It was de Watteville's second RBI of the game as he knocked in Contrades in the fifth with a fielder's choice.
Five Spartans pitchers combined to strikeout a season-high 10 batters in the victory. Michael Wright and Jackson Berumen combined to strike out six in the final three innings of the game.
USF scored a run in the bottom of the seventh to make it a 4-3 game, and had runners on the corners with none out in the bottom of the ninth. Berumen however, struck out two Dons looking and induced a fly out to center field to end the game. It is the fourth one-run victory of the season for San Jose State.
"We pitched out of some jams today and kept things to a minimum," said SJSU head coach Dave Nakama. "I give it to Jackson, he pitched out of that jam and that was pretty big. It was a gritty performance by him."
James Glawe (2-1) pitched the fifth and sixth innings for the Spartans and allowed one earned run on one hit. Contrades prevented further damage in the fifth when he gunned out Derek Atkinson at the plate from left field to end the inning. Atkinson represented the go-ahead run for the Don's in a 2-2 game and failed to score from second when Contrades collected a base hit in left and threw a laser to the chest of Kyle Gallegos for the out.
"I give them credit, it's not easy to play hard on the road when you aren't playing well," Nakama said. "They played hard today, and I think the pitching was especially good."
Mack Meyer (0-1) gave up two runs on four hits to the Spartans in the seventh inning. San Francisco starter Sheldon Lee pitched four innings of shutout ball and exited with a 1-0 lead.
NOTES: Jacob Valdez's bunt single in the seventh inning moved him into a tie for ninth place all-time with 201 career hits...It was only the second time in the last two years that SJSU has had double digit strikeouts in a nine-inning game...USF's Bradley Zimmer went 2-for-4 and extended his nation-leading hit streak to 19 games.