May 24, 2018
San Diego, Calif. --- The San Jose State University baseball team lost 2-1 to San Diego State in the first round of the Mountain West Tournament Thursday night at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
"You go into this game and you know two high level pitchers are going to pitch and make it a close game," said interim head coach Brad Sanfilippo. "It comes down to someone getting a big hit and taking advantage of an opportunity and they were able to do that tonight."
David Campbell's double down the right field line with two outs in the fourth inning scored Shane Timmons and gave the Spartans a one run lead over the Aztecs.
San Diego State's David Hensley tied the game up 1-1 with one out in the bottom of the seventh when he hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Dean Nevarez. Then Chase Calabuig singled up the middle with two outs and plated Jacob Maekawa to take a 2-1 lead.
Mountain West Co-Pitcher of the year, Andrew Mitchel (6-2), threw six straight shutout innings. The junior racked up nine strikeouts and allowed two hits before the start of the seventh inning.
Fineas Del Bonta-Smith (5-3) pitched 1.2 innings in relief, and had two strikeouts.
"This one hurt because we care and want to win. We feel good putting the game in Andrew Mitchel's hands and Finn's hands," added Sanfilippo.
The winning pitcher was Jacob Erickson (4-3). He relieved Garrett Hill (7-2) in the seventh and pitched 2.2 innings without allowing a hit.
The Spartans will battle Nevada in an elimination game starting Friday at 1:30 p.m. inside Tony Gwynn Stadium.