May 9, 2014
Colorado Springs, Colo. --- Jacob Valdez hit a pair of clutch RBI-doubles and Kalei Contrades pitched his third consecutive game of more than eight innings to lead San Jose State to a 4-2 win over Air Force in 10 innings at Falcon Field on Friday.
It is the second weekend in a row that the Spartans (17-34, 10-18 MW) have taken game one of a Mountain West series.
"This is a gutty win for us," said SJSU head coach Dave Nakama. "It's always good to win especially when you pitch well and get the hits when you need them."
Valdez finished the day 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run. In the seventh, he tied the game 2-2 with a double off the wall in left field which scored Kyle Gallegos who singled. Valdez came up again in the top of the 10th with Gallegos on first due to an error. Hit number 215 of Valdez's career was a double down the right-field line allowing Gallegos to score from first, sliding under the tag of Air Force catcher Brian Sicher to give SJSU the 3-2 lead.
"Their guy has a lot of talent," Nakama said. "To scratch out the runs we did today against him was big for our club. Gallegos and Valdez are good hitters. They are good in the clutch and we like having guys on base when they come up."
Matt Lopez followed Valdez with an RBI-single to left that gave SJSU the 4-2 lead.
Contrades (4-2) pitched nine innings, allowing only five hits and two earned runs while striking out three with no walks. Solo home runs by Noah Pierce and David Thomas accounted for the only Air Force runs of the day.
"Kalei pitched so well," Nakama said. "He did a good job throwing strikes and then his slider was really good there at the end."
Contrades is 2-0 with a 1.71 ERA in his last three starts spanning 26 1/3 innings. Myles Richard relieved Jackson Berumen in the bottom of the tenth with two out and bases loaded. Richard earned his fourth save of the year when he got Falcons leadoff man Spencer Draws to fly out to left on the first pitch.
Air Force (17-31, 7-18 MW) starter Cameron White threw eight innings allowing eight hits and one earned run with seven strikeouts. Nathan Stanford (2-1) threw two innings out of the Flacons pen and took the loss. Each pitcher had a run go unearned against their ERA due to five errors by the Air Force defense throughout the game.
The two teams will meet tomorrow for a doubleheader due to inclement weather in the forecast for Sunday. Game one is scheduled to start at 11:00 a.m. MST.