May 19, 2017
A post shared by San Jose State Baseball (@sjsubaseball) on May 19, 2017 at 5:44pm PDT
Box Score
LAS VEGAS - The Spartans baseball team got off to a quick start scoring two runs in the opening frame but it was all Rebels thereafter as SJSU lost 12-4 on Friday night at Earl E. Wilson Stadium.
With the loss, the Spartans dropped to 9-18-1 in Mountain West conference play falling behind UNLV (10-19 MW) for seventh place in the conference standings. Overall, SJSU is 18-35-1 and UNLV is 20-35. The winner of tomorrow's season finale will finish in sole position of sixth place in the Mountain West.
In the first, Shane Timmons (2-for-3, R, 2 RBI, BB) and Joseph Stefanki (1-for-3, R, RBI) each had an RBI after the Spartans loaded the bases to put SJSU up 2-0. Timmons' single brought home Kyle Morrison (0-for-3, R, 2 BB), who led the game off with a walk, for the first run of the game. Morrison extended his streak of reaching base safely to 18 games.
San Jose State's 2-0 lead would quickly evaporate when UNLV put up three runs on five hits against Spartan starter Jake Swiech in the home half of the first.
Down 4-2 in the top of the third, the Spartans would cut the Rebel lead to 4-3 when Michael Breen (1-for-3, RBI, BB) singled home Stefanki. But that is the closest the Spartans would come.
The Rebels added a run in the third to make it 5-3 and extended its lead to 7-3 in the fourth.
Shane Timmons hit a solo homer in the seventh for the final run of the evening for the Spartans. It was Timmons' 10th home run of the season. The last Spartan to hit double digit homeruns was Kevin Bellows back in 2009.
Along with Timmons, Chris Williams (2-for-5, R) and Aaron Pleschner (2-for-4) were the three Spartans that had multiple hits on the evening.
Swiech was saddled with the loss, dropping his record to 1-5 on the season. Rebels starter Garrett Poole who threw 6.0 innings scattering eight hits and three runs got the win with Tevita Gerber picking up a three-inning save.
The rubber match of the series is scheduled for Saturday, May 20 with the first pitch at 2:05 p.m. PT.