May 19, 2018
San Jose, Calif.----- San Jose State University concluded its baseball regular season with a three-game sweep of Air Force winning the series finale, 3-1, and earned the #3-seed in next week's Mountain West Tournament hosted by San Diego State.
In control of their own destiny going into the series with the Falcons (24-30, 12-17 MW), the Spartans (26-28, 16-14 MW) needed to win two-of-three to guarantee a spot in the four-team tournament. San Jose State did that in the first two games with a 3-1 triumph in game one on May 17 and a 6-5 walk-off victory on May 18.
To close out the season, the Spartans leaned heavily on a pitching staff that allowed two or fewer runs for the fifth time in the last 11 conference contests. Starter Tevin Cadola and relievers Cameron Keup and Zach Wallace blanked Air Force (24-30, 12-17 MW) or the first eight innings. Josh Goldberg, the Spartans' fourth pitcher, allowed a Falcons' run in the ninth before picking up his second save of the season.
Wallace (1-2) was the winning pitcher tossing 3.2 innings, striking out three without a base on balls. He allowed just a one-out single in the sixth when the game was still scoreless.
The bottom of the batting order ignited San Jose State's run-scoring innings, one in the sixth and two in the seventh. Johnny Mendoza, Kyle Morrison, Anders Davidson and Aaron Pleschner accounted for five of the team's 10 hits. Leadoff batter Brett Bautista's sacrifice fly broke a 0-0 tie scoring Pleschner who opened the inning with a double to right and moved to third on an error by rightfielder Ashton Easley.
An inning later, Anders Davidson's second RBI single of the week was the third hit of a two-run, four-hit inning giving the Spartans a 2-0 lead. After Pleschner's second hit in as many innings, a single, Bautista picked up his second RBI of the game with a bases loaded walk forcing in Kyle Morrison, who also singled in the inning for San Jose State's final run.
By winning 10 of their last 13 conference games, the Spartans finished with a winning record in Mountain West action for the first time since joining the conference in 2014 and in any league race since 2009 when San Jose State posted a 15-7 mark in the Western Athletic Conference.
The Spartans' first opponent in the double-elimination tournament will be San Diego State (36-19, 18-12 MW), Thursday, May 24, at 6:00 p.m. in Tony Gwynn Stadium on the San Diego State campus. Regular season champion Nevada and #4-seed UNLV open the tournament at 1:30 p.m.
The Mountain West Network will stream all tournament games.