May 2, 2015
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- San Jose State's baseball team took advantage of some Fresno State miscues late in the game to top the Bulldogs, 7-3, Saturday afternoon at Municipal Stadium.
With the game tied 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth, the Spartans (12-35, 5-18 MW) plated four two-out runs to even the series with the Bulldogs (22-25, 12-11). After David Campbell's double and Chris Williams' single, Fresno State's shortstop made a throwing error and fielding error in consecutive at-bats, bringing home three runs. Corey Olivet provided some punctuation with an RBI single into left for the Spartans' fourth unearned run of the inning.
Matt Brown (2-5) then came on and finished off the Bulldogs in the top of the ninth for his second win of the season. The freshman worked the final 2.2 innings in relief of starter and fellow freshman Josh Nashed and yielded just one hit.
"I give these guys credit; they've played hard all year," said Spartans' head coach Dave Nakama. "As a coach, I don't think I have any gripes about how hard they play. I think we have a great group and it starts with our young freshmen. The future is bright if we can keep getting them better."
Nashed finished with a final line of 6.1 innings pitched, three runs allowed (two earned) and four strikeouts in the 29 Bulldogs he faced. After working through some trouble in the first two innings, Nashed settled in and gave up just one hit through the first five innings.
Shane Timmons provided the Spartans with a 2-0 lead after four innings by sending two of the first three pitches he saw from Fresno State starter Anthony Arias over the fence in left field for solo home runs. With his pair of long balls, the freshman took sole possession of the team lead with three on the season after going deep last Saturday at Nevada.
"I've been getting myself into deep counts and taking too many fastballs in the past few games, so the first at-bat I was going to hack at the first fastball I saw, and I did," Timmons said. "The second at-bat, he threw me a first-pitch slider and then he threw me a hanging one, so I just took advantage of that."
San Jose State would add one more in the fifth on Campbell's RBI groundout to extend its lead to 3-0 before Fresno State responded with two in the sixth and one in the seventh to tie it up.
Timmons (2-4, two runs, two home runs, two RBIs) had the only multi-hit day for the Spartans, while Andre Mercurio (1-4), Campbell (1-4, double), Williams (1-3, run, walk), Olivet (1-3, run, RBI, walk) and Joe Stefanki (1-2) contributed a hit apiece.
San Jose State will try to take the series from Fresno State at home for a second consecutive season when the schools face off in a 1:00 p.m. rubber match at Municipal Stadium tomorrow afternoon.