April 7, 2015
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- San Jose State's baseball team jumped on Santa Clara with a rally in the second inning for an early 1-0 lead, but would get no more in Tuesday night's 2-1 loss at Santa Clara.
"We pitched good enough to win and we gave ourselves a chance, but we're just not hitting the ball at the right time," said Spartans' head coach Dave Nakama. "We have to work at that and get better. We'll see what happens."
San Jose State (8-24, 2-13 MW) and Santa Clara (15-16, 4-8 WCC) each collected six hits, but the all of the Spartans' hits were singles while the Broncos recorded three doubles.
Jonathan Hernandez started for the Spartans and worked 3.1 innings, allowing one run on four hits while walking three and striking out three.
Josh Goldberg (0-1) was tagged with the loss for his 0.2 innings of relief in which he gave up a run on one hit in the three Broncos he faced. Matt Brown, Ross Slaney, Jackson Berumen and Myles Richard also saw action out of the San Jose State bullpen.
Ozzy Braff (2-4) led the way for the Spartans' offense, with Dillan Smith (1-4), Alec de Watteville (1-3, run, walk), Chris Williams (1-4) and David Campbell (1-3) also getting in the hit column.
The Spartans got on the board first in the top of the second for an early 1-0 lead. De Watteville and Williams led off the inning with base hits and moved up on an attempted pickoff throw that deflected into shallow center, setting up Joe Stefanki's sac fly to center. Williams would be left stranded, however, as back-to-back groundouts to second ended the threat.
After working out of jams in the first two innings and retiring the Broncos in order in the third, Hernandez couldn't escape in the fourth. A one-out walk followed by a wild pitch put Jake Brodt in scoring position, and Kyle Cortopassi's double down the left field line tied up the game. Hernandez was lifted after another walk, and Brown entered and promptly fanned the next two Broncos to end the inning.
The Broncos pushed the go-ahead run across in the bottom of the seventh to reach the final 2-1 margin. Berumen departed after inducing a groundout to the only hitter he faced, and Austin Fisher greeted new pitcher Goldberg with a double down the right field line. After a wild pitch moved Fisher to third, Grant Meylan lifted a sac fly to left to take the lead.
Santa Clara's Reece Karalus made it stick in the ninth, working through a two-out walk to record his ninth save of the season.
"Wild pitches and a walk got those guys on," Nakama said. "It's tough, but that's why we have the record that we do. We make a lot of mistakes and we kind of shoot ourselves in the foot. We have to get over that and we have to play better. We still have a long way to go, so hopefully we can get better every week."
Co-Mountain West leader San Diego State visits Municipal Stadium this weekend in a three-game set beginning Friday at 6:00 p.m.
NOTES: Joe Stefanki's sac fly in the second marks his fourth RBI in his last five games... Matt Brown made his first relief appearance since Feb. 27 at San Diego State... Santa Clara's TJ Braff is the older brother of San Jose State's Ozzy Braff... The loss was San Jose State's first at Stephen Schott Stadium since the 2012 season.