March 28, 2016
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Just when it looked like Stanford had pulled off a ninth-inning comeback, San Jose State uncorked a miracle of its own to surge to a 10-9 walk-off victory Monday night at Municipal Stadium.
The win marked the second in a row for San Jose State (8-15), both by way of walk-off thrillers. Monday, the Spartans trailed 5-2 after the sixth against one of the nation's top bullpens in the Cardinal (12-7) and put together four-run innings in two of the last three frames.
In the bottom of the seventh, Corey Olivet led off with a base hit back up the box and scored from first on Cal Koga's double down the right field line. The Cardinal made a call to the bullpen after the next hitter, Dillan Smith, collected a single of his own. Aaron Pleschner bounded reliever Kris Bubic's second pitch to short, where it was mishandled by Tommy Edman as Koga crossed the dish to cut the lead to 5-4. Pleschner would come home with the tying run two batters later on a wild pitch by Bubic, and Brendt Citta gave the Spartans their first lead of the night.
Josh Goldberg (3-0) entered in the top of the ninth to try to make the 6-5 lead stick, but the Cardinal had other ideas. Stanford's first five hitters of the inning reached base, and by the time the inning was over, it had plated four runs on four hits, a hit batter and two walks to take a 9-6 lead.
Top Cardinal reliever Chris Viall (1-1) entered in the bottom half sporting an ERA of 0.00 in 12.0 innings this season, with only an unearned run on his ledger. The Spartans greeted him with a Pleschner single sandwiched between walks to Smith and Beck, loading the bases. Viall continued to struggle finding the zone, as he sent two pitches to the backstop that cut the lead to 9-8. Citta, who already had his first multi-hit and multi-RBI games under his belt for the night, tacked on one more of each with a knock through the right side that tied it up at nine. Michael Breen played the hero by driving a ball into the right center gap that landed just out of the reach of right fielder Quinn Brodey and allowed Citta to come home with the winning run.
"That was their guy on the mound, so that's good for our guys. We're taking better at-bats, and I think the guys are getting more confident in their approach and trusting it more," said Spartans head coach Dave Nakama. "That was a big win for us. We needed that. Hopefully that will give us some confidence going into Wednesday and then the weekend."
Each team scored two runs in its first trip to the plate. Stanford tacked on another run in the third and two more in the sixth. They finished with 16 hits on the night and had at least one baserunner in eight of the nine innings.
The Spartans used seven pitchers on the night, none going more than an inning outside of starter Hilario Tovar working 3.0 frames.
San Jose State kicks off an eight-game road swing with a trip to Santa Clara on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m.