Feb. 22, 2015
SAN JOSE, Calif. - San Jose State's baseball team played its most complete game of the season Sunday afternoon, racing out to an early lead and keeping the throttle down en route to a 10-0 series-clinching win over Northern Colorado.
The Spartans (4-4, 0-0 MW) used a combination of good pitching, timely hitting and stellar defense to cruise to a 3-1 series victory over the Bears (1-3, 0-0 WAC).
On the mound, Ross Slaney picked up his first win of his Spartans' career, going 4.0 innings and allowing four hits while walking three and striking out three. Turtle Kuhaulua came on in relief in the fifth and closed out the game with a 5.0-inning save - his second save of the week. The freshman allowed four hits while walking a pair and fanning four.
"It starts with pitching, and Ross did well and then Turtle came in and did a good job," said head coach Dave Nakama. "Any time you can shut somebody out it's always helpful, but it took some pressure off the hitters and I think it showed in some of their at-bats."
San Jose State got big days at the plate from Andre Mercurio (2-5, 2 R, 2 2B, RBI), Alec de Watteville (2-3, 2 R, 2B, 2 RBI), Brett Bautista (2-4, 2 R, RBI) and Joe Stefanki (2-2, 2 R, 2 BB, 2 RBI).
Leading off the home half of the first inning, Northern Colorado starter Josh Wagner hit Dillan Smith, who was moved to second on a sac bunt by Michael Breen and driven home on a Mercurio double. De Watteville and Bautista followed up with consecutive RBI singles up the middle to put the Spartans ahead 3-0. After Chris Williams reached base on an error that would've ended the inning, Stefanki laced an RBI single to single to left and Tyler Olivet was hit by a pitch, signaling the end of the day for Wagner.
In total, the Spartans sent 10 men to the plate in the first frame and scored four runs on four hits.
"I think it's one of the few games we weren't behind in the first inning," said Nakama. "The hitters settled in early and they took good batting practice today. I think they were a little more focused than the prior games."
In the third inning, de Watteville laced a booming double off the top of the left field wall and came around to score on Stefanki's second RBI base hit of the day to make it 5-0.
San Jose State kept adding to its lead, as they would tack on two more on Tyler Olivet's triple down the right field line in the bottom of the fifth. In the next inning, Mercurio tucked a double just inside the left field line and came home on a de Watteville sac fly to left.
The Spartans made it an even 10 runs on the day in the seventh, when Chris Williams led off the inning with a line drive up the middle and a walk and hit batter set the table for an RBI fielder's choice off the bat of Smith. Breen followed up with his second sac fly of the game to drive in Stefanki.
The Bears had their best chance off Kuhaulua in the top of the seventh, when Rob Cashel sparked what looked to be a two-out rally with a perfectly placed bunt single. A catcher's inference call and a base hit by Cole Maltese loaded the bases, but Kuhaulua got out of the jam when de Watteville snagged a line drive off the bat of cleanup-hitter Jensen Park.
"This win gives you some confidence. I don't think we've been .500 after eight games in the last two years, so it should give us some confidence," Nakama said. "We're not going to fool ourselves, though. I don't think we played that well and we have a lot of work to do before we head down to San Diego State this weekend."
The Spartans open Mountain West play when they visit SDSU Feb. 27-March 1.