March 29, 2015
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- San Jose State's baseball team held Nevada scoreless over the final four frames, but couldn't string together enough offense to overcome a 4-0 deficit in Sunday's 4-2 loss to the Wolf Pack at Municipal Stadium.
"We played OK today. We had our opportunities to win and didn't get hits with guys on base," said San Jose State head coach Dave Nakama. "We're in a position now where it's not good enough to just play well; the bottom line is we have to win games, and we haven't been doing that. We're just not playing well enough to win."
San Jose State (8-20, 2-10 MW) dropped the series to Nevada (23-5, 9-3 MW) despite taking the opener by a 5-4 tally on a walk-off hit by pitch.
Matt Brown (1-4) was tagged with the loss for his 3.0-inning outing, departing with no one out in the fourth after allowing a pair if runs on four hits while walking three and hitting a batter.
Turtle Kuhaulua closed out the final 4.2 innings for San Jose State, scattering four hits and striking out three while keeping the Spartans within striking distance.
Cameron Rowland (3-2) picked up the win for Nevada despite walking six Spartans in his 5.2 innings of work. The junior southpaw was charged with a lone run on four hits.
San Jose State's best scoring chances came in the third and fourth innings, when it loaded the bases in both frames thanks to four Rowland walks. Both times, however, Nevada was able to escape with no damage done.
"We had bases loaded and we had the right guys up, but we hit into a double play," said Nakama. "Good teams don't do that. Good teams drive people in in that situation and right now we're just not hitting with guys on base."
Josh Nashed, the winning pitcher in Friday's ballgame, started at third base and got the Spartans on the board with a bases-loaded single through the left side in the bottom of the sixth.
Joe Stefanki tripled into the right field corner to bring home the Spartans' second and final run in the bottom of the eighth, plating Shane Timmons, who led off the inning with a double. Stefanki had an equally impressive day behind the dish, throwing out a pair of would-be Wolf Pack base stealers and getting credit for a third on a batter's interference call in the fifth.
Every hitter in San Jose State's starting lineup except for Brett Bautista picked up a hit in Sunday's series finale.
The Spartans are off Tuesday before heading to Air Force for another Mountain West set Thursday through Saturday.