April 28, 2015
STANFORD, Calif. -- San Jose State's baseball nearly erased a three-run deficit in the ninth-inning of Tuesday night's midweek contest at Stanford, but fell just short in a 4-3 defeat at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond.
San Jose State (11-34) entered the last frame trailing Stanford (19-23) 4-1, but got the tying run aboard before the Cardinal held on for the win.
With two down in the inning against Gabe Cramer, Chris Williams singled to center and advanced to second on a wild pitch. After Joe Stefanki doubled down the right field line to cut the lead to 4-2, David Campbell brought Stefanki home with a single up the middle to move the Spartans within one. With Mitch Ravizza representing the tying run at first as a pinch runner for Campbell, Alex Dunlap snagged Alec de Watteville's grounder down the first base line and the Cardinal escaped.
"Sometimes you don't start playing hard until the end, and it was too late," said San Jose State head coach Dave Nakama. "That's a tough situation to be down three runs and think you're going to come back against a good club."
Each team collected nine hits, but the Spartans committed four errors and walked six batters on the evening while the Cardinal committed none and walked one.
"That's the most disappointing part of the game -- the errors. The errors you can control," Nakama said. "That's all about playing hard and being ready to play, and we weren't ready to play early in the game. Other than that I thought we pitched well enough to win and we hit the ball at times, but offense is still a big question mark for us."
Carter Johnson (0-2) made his second consecutive Tuesday start and took the tough-luck loss. The sophomore worked the first 4.0 innings and allowed just one run while scattering three hits and striking out one. Johnson was relieved by Dylan Sugimoto, Jake Swiech, Ross Slaney, Josh Goldberg, Jonathan Hernandez and Myles Richard -- none of whom tossed more than an inning.
Campbell (2-4, run, RBI) recorded his third consecutive two-hit game, while Wiliams (2-4, run, RBI) also picked up a pair of hits. Andre Mercurio (1-4, RBI), Stefanki (1-4, run, double, RBI), Kyle Morrison (1-2), Justin Beck (1-1) and Dillan Smith (1-2, walk) contributed to the Spartans' nine-hit attack.
Stanford pushed a run across in the top of the first on an RBI groundout by right fielder Zach Hoffpauir. The 1-0 lead would remain until the bottom of the seventh, when the Cardinal added three more runs on a walk and three hits, including a pair of doubles.
The Spartans loaded the bases with one out in the top of the eighth, but could only push across one run on Mercurio's fielder's choice.
San Jose State returns to Municipal Stadium for the first time in three weeks when it hosts Fresno State this weekend.