SAN JOSE, Calif. – San Jose State baseball battled through a lengthy rain delay to score three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and defeat Air Force 3-2 to clinch the series.
With the Spartans trailing 1-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, the skies opened up and a hard rain shower forced play to be suspended. After 2 hours and 15 minutes, play resumed and SJSU came out hot on offense and scored three runs, all unearned, in the bottom of the sixth to take a 3-1 lead.
Troy Viola grounded a double play ball to third, but the Air Force third baseman's throw to second went wide allowing Kellen Strahm to take third and Aaron Pleschner to score. The next batter up, Johnny Mendoza, laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to bring Strahm home and James Shimashita put a cap on the inning with a RBI single to plate Viola.
Air Force (6-5, 1-2) got one back and made things very interesting in the eighth on a RBI groundout with no outs. Fineas Del Bonta-Smith was brought into the game to relieve Jonathan Clark. Bonta-Smith got out of the jam with a lineout to third and a groundout to first to strand runners at the corners.
Bonta-Smith returned to for the ninth and struck out two of the three batters faced to pick up his third save of the season as the Spartans improved to 9-5, 3-2 on the season.
Starting pitcher Tevin Cadola (2-0) picked up the win after scattering six hits in 6.0 innings of work with just one earned run against. Air Force reliever Luke Chilcutt, responsible for the three-run sixth inning, was charged with the loss (0-1).
The Spartans finished with just five hits to the Falcons' eight and finished with a pair of errors.
The series finale between the Spartans and Falcons begins tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. PT. The game has been bumped up from its original 12:00 p.m. start time due to the threat of inclement weather.
