May 5, 2014
Game Notes 5/9-11
SJSU CONCLUDES REGULAR SEASON MW PLAY AT AIR FORCE
After a 6-3 loss on Tuesday at USF opened up a five-game road trip, San José State will look to rebound in a three-game Mountain West series at Air Force this weekend. Although the Falcons are in last place in the MW standings, it had been no easy task for any team to defeat them at Falcon Field in Colorado Springs, Colo., where this weekend's series will take place. Air Force is 11-5 overall at home this season and has a 7-5 mark in MW play on their home field. The Spartans are coming off of their first MW series win of 2014last weekend when they won on Friday night and Sunday afternoon. Kalei Contrades will make his third consecutive start on a Friday when the Spartans and Falcons meet for game one at 2:00 p.m. PDT on May 9
GAMES 51-53
at AIR FORCE (17-30, 7-17 MW)
GAME 1 of DH
SJSU 7 Air Force 8
Game 2
LHP Johnny Melero (2-6, 5.56) vs. Steven Trojan (2-6, 5.30)
FLACON FIELD (1,000)
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.
WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK
The Spartans went 3-2 last week and finished with an exclamation point that was a 5-2 victory over Fresno State on Senior Day. The victory in the home finale secured SJSU's first Mountain West series win of 2014. San José State took game one of the series Friday night behind Kalei Contrades' pitching and Andre Mercurio's clutch 2-run single that proved to be the game-winning hit. Leading up to the weekend series, the Spartans dropped a home game to Santa Clara, 7-4, and picked up a road victory at Saint Mary's College, 6-3.
MOUNTAIN WEST OUTLOOK
Taking two out of three games from Fresno State gave San José State a sliver of hope to avoid the single-elimination play-in game in which the #6 and #7 seeds would meet in at the Mountain West Tournament later this May. At 9-18 heading into the final conference series this weekend, the Spartans must sweep Air Force and hope that Fresno State (12-15) gets swept in their final series at SDSU. New Mexico took two of three from SDSU last weekend and is back tied at the top of the standings with UNLV at 16-8. Both teams have two conference series remaining. See the link at the top of the page to look at the MW Championship Tournament bracket.
WHAT'S LEFT
The Spartans finish the regular season on the road over the next two weeks. The Spartans play Tuesday at USF and then head to Air Force for the final three-game MW series against the Falcons. The regular season finale for SJSU will be Tuesday, May 13 at Stanford in a 5:30 p.m. start.
SENIORS LEAVE THEIR MARK ON 5-2 WIN OVER BULLDOGS
The five seniors in the batting order on Sunday combined to go 8-for-15 (.533) with three runs and accounted for all five RBI in the game. At one point in the first inning, three seniors in a row all came up with hits helping SJSU jump out to a 4-0 lead over Fresno State. Senior pitchers Johnny Melero and James Glawe combined to pitch the first six inning of the game allowing just two runs, and Glawe picked up his team-leading fourth win.
CONTRADES FULFILLS HIS DREAM ON FRIDAY NIGHT
Junior right-hander Kalei Contrades tossed 8 1/3 innings this past Friday which helped lead SJSU to a 3-2 victory over Fresno State. He said after the game that it was always his dream to start on Fridays, and now he is living it after taking the bump for the Spartans the last two series openers. He has a 1.55 ERA over 17 1/3 innings during those contests and is 1-0 with a 1.57 ERA in his last six appearances spanning 28 2/3 innings.
GALLEGOS LEADS THE BATTING CHARGE VERSUS FRESNO STATE
Catcher Kyle Gallegos went 6-for-10 (.600) with a double and a run in the Fresno State series. Getting hit by a pitch three times helped bring his on-base percentage to .692 in three games.
BULLPEN SUCCESS COMES IN TWOS
Senior reliever James Glawe picked up two wins last week in five innings of work out of the pen. He threw three innings at Saint Mary's when the Spartans won 6-3, and tossed two hitless innings to earn a win in Sunday's home finale against Fresno State. Myles Richard picked up two saves last week, both coming in the wins over Fresno State. He got the final two outs of Friday night's win and then tossed three shutout innings for save number two on Sunday.
SPARTANS VALUE A LATE LEAD
The Spartans are 13-3 when leading their opponents after the seventh inning and a perfect 13-0 when leading after eight.
SPARTANS RAISE THE AVERAGE FOR CONFERENCE GAMES
San José State's .266 batting average in conference play is over 25 points higher than the mark in nonconference action. Matt Carroll, Andre Mercurio, Matt Lopez and Jacob Valdez are all hitting above .300 in a minimum of 24 MW contests in 2014.
SCOUTING SAN FRANCISCO
The Dons (21-25) enter into Tuesday game after dropping two of three to Santa Clara in West Coast Conference action last weekend. USF has lost five of its last seven games and is 2-3 in its last five midweek contests. Bradley Zimmer continues to lead USF in batting as he has all year long when the Dons show up on the Spartans' schedule. He is batting .370 in 189 at-bats while leading the team in hits (70), triples (6) and homers (7).
SPARTANS VERSUS DONS 2014
SJSU edged USF 4-3 in the two teams' last meeting on April 8. Kalei Contrades and Brett Bautista each left a mark on the game bringing home all four runs between the two of them. James Glawe picked up the win and Jackson Berumen earned a save. The win was part of a road trip which the Spartans finished 3-2. The Dons took the first meeting of the year 7-2 at Municipal Stadium back on March 18. They scored five runs in the first three innings against the Spartans and never looked back. Tuesday's game will be for the season series.