SAN JOSE, Calif. – San Jose State baseball battled hard, but found little offensive success as they dropped a low-scoring game one to Nevada, 3-1 Friday night at Excite Ballpark. The Spartans allowed all three of Nevada's runs to come across in the seventh inning.
Senior pitcher Andrew Mitchel, making the final home start of his Spartan career, pitched well, but came up on the wrong end of the pitcher's duel. He worked 7.0 innings, scattering five hits and allowed three runs. The Atwater, California, product also struck out seven, eclipsing 200 total strikeouts in his career and also eclipsed the 100 strikeout mark for the second-straight season. Mitchel has 103 strikeouts on the season, just seven shy of cracking the top-10 for strikeouts in a single season in school history.
Nicholas Morales and Zach Wallace combined for the final six outs in relief duty, allowing just one combined and tallied three punch-outs.
Nevada starter Ryan Anderson worked the first 5.2 innings allowing just four hits before giving way for Grant Ford (5-1) who went the distance. Ford allowed one run on one hit and struck out five to pick up the win. Mitchel was charged with the loss for SJSU to drop to 3-5.
The Wolfpack (26-24, 12-16) was the first team to breakthrough in the seventh inning as they plated three runs on three hits, but it was defensive miscues that proved costly for the Spartans in the frame. Nevada led-off with a double, but Mitchel bounced back to strikeout the next batter. Unfortunately, the pitch was in the dirt and rolled to the backstop allowing the batter to reach safely. Next man up, Joshua Zamora, belted a double of his own to plate the first run. Westen Hatton then hit a routine fly ball to centerfield that Spartan outfielder Kellen Strahm was unable to track down for what should have been the second out. The ball dropped harmlessly for yet another double as a run came across. The final run came home on a sacrifice fly.
SJSU (19-30, 12-13) did bounce back in the following inning as Blake Berry laced a RBI double to the gap in left-center to plate Strahm for the Spartans' lone run. They had a chance to add more, but was unable to capitalize with the bases loaded. The Spartans finished with 11 men left on base.
Game two of the series begins tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. PT.
