May 20, 2016
SAN JOSE, Calif - Pitching was the theme of the night as San Jose State prevailed, 2-1, over San Diego state at Municipal Stadium in San Jose. The contests featured only eight hits with the home team recording five of those.
With the loss, SDSU dropped its overall record to 18-36. More importantly, it fell to 10-19 in Mountain West play, and coupled with Air Force's win over New Mexico, the Aztecs will now finish in sixth place and be involved in the play-in game at next week's Mountain West Tournament.
San Diego opened the scoring in Friday's contest, getting its lone run in the top of the fourth. With one out, Chase Calabuig reached first base thanks to a wild pitch on a third strike. After a fly ball out, Tyler Adkison singled, and when Spartan right fielder Hunter Tidwell committed an error on the play Calabuig was able to come around and score from first base.
That would the only run that SDSU would get against Spartan starting pitcher Hilario Tovar, who went seven innings scattering three hits with a pair of walks and four strikeouts. The seven innings were a career high for the sophomore right-hander and he would be credited with the win to improve to 3-4.
San Jose State wasted little time in responding to SDSU's run as they scored one of their own in the bottom of the fourth against Aztec starter Brett Seeburger. Back-to-back singles and a sacrifice bunt set the stage for Ozzy Braff's sacrifice fly to left to knot the score at 1-1.
The Spartans would score the winning run in the next frame to take the lead. A single by Michael Breen, a balk and an RBI single by Aaron Pleschner put SJSU up, 2-1, and ended the game's scoring.
San Jose State sophomore reliever Josh Nashed would toss the final two innings, retiring all six batters he faced to record his first career save.
For San Diego State, Seeburger went six innings allowing two runs on five hits with no walks and three strikeouts. With his offense able to generate only three hits on the night, the Aztec lefty was tagged with the loss to fall to 1-3 on the season.
Harrison Pyatt went the final two frames for SDSU and the redshirt freshman set down the six hitters he faced over that span.
San Diego and San Jose State will conclude their weekend series and the 2016 regular season with a contest on Saturday, May 21, set to get underway at 1:00 p.m. at Municipal Stadium.