March 21, 2015
FRESNO, Calif. - San Jose State's baseball team couldn't minimize a fourth-inning Fresno State rally and dropped the series to the Bulldogs with a 9-2 loss Saturday night at Beiden Field.
Fresno State sent 10 men to the plate in the fourth inning and seven of them came across to score to make it a 9-1 ballgame. The Bulldogs collected five hits, including back-to-back home runs, and took advantage of two Spartan errors to score seven runs (three earned) off Matt Brown and reliever Josh Goldberg.
"Same old thing: we don't take care of the baseball and it leads to seven runs. That's the hard part," San Jose State head coach Dave Nakama said. "You have to get outs when you can, and if you don't get outs or you give good teams extra outs, that's what they're going to do. They made us pay for that and we have to do a better job."
With the loss, the Spartans fell to 7-15 on the season and 1-7 in Mountain West action, while the Bulldogs advanced to 13-11 overall and 5-3 in conference.
Fresno State starter Anthony Arias and reliever Ricky Thomas stymied the Spartans' offense all night, allowing just the two runs on four total hits. Thomas (1-0) picked up his first career win for his 4.2 innings of relief work with six strikeouts and a lone hit surrendered.
Freshman Matt Brown (1-3) made the start and took the loss, allowing seven runs (five earned) on seven hits in 3.2 innings of work. Brown also walked two, hit two and struck out two of the 23 Bulldogs he faced.
Brown retired the first two Bulldogs of the game, but hit catcher Taylor Ward with an 0-1 fastball and then surrendered three consecutive base hits to plate a pair of runs.
The Spartans manufactured a run in the top half of the second inning to cut the lead in half. Alec de Watteville led off with a bouncer through the left side, David Campbell advanced him to second on a bunt, then de Watteville reached third on a wild pitch and scored on Ozzy Braff's RBI groundout to short. The RBI was the first of his San José State career.
After the Bulldogs' rally in the fourth, San Jose State got one back in the top of the next inning to make it 9-2, but missed an opportunity for more. The Spartans loaded the bases with one away but couldn't manage more than an RBI fielder's choice.
From that point on, no Spartans reached base until a two-out error in the ninth inning, including no San José State hits until Justin Beck's infield single for the first knock of his career on the second-to-last play of the game.
"I don't think we hit the ball well enough to win the game, and part of it is also that you want to play well," Nakama said. "If you play well and lose, that's something you can take a little bit, but we have to do a better job and clean it up at the plate."
The Spartans will send Hilario Tovar (1-0) to the mound Sunday against Fresno State's Garrett Mundell (1-1) in a 1:05 p.m. first pitch.