By Matt Weiner (@MattWeiner20) — BSB Beat Reporter
New Mexico 2 (4-7, 1-2) vs SJSU 4 (8-4, 2-1)
Winning pitcher: Joey Cammarata (1-0)
Losing pitcher: Justin Still (0-1)
Save: Brady Hill (4)
The Spartans bench was shredding their voices box like it was a block of parmesan over some shrimp scampi. Each “here we go!” and “atta boy!” was desperately needed as the Spartans were down 2-0 in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Brady Hill’s lead off walk was quickly followed by outs from Robert Hamchuk and Hunter Dorraugh.
Dorraugh’s out was productive as it advanced Hill into scoring position with Saturday’s hero Charles McAdoo heading to the plate.
McAdoo came up big for the second day in a row on a shot up the middle to bring the Spartans within one.
The bases were loaded up after Danny Zimmerman wore a fastball off the arm and Jack Colette took a trip to first on four balls.
With the bases loaded, Dalton Bowling stepped to the plate needing to advance McAdoo 90 feet to tie the game and Zimmerman 180 feet to snatch the lead.
Chaos went from being a peeping tom to getting in the middle of the action.
He was looking “to see something up and hit it hard and put some pressure on the defense and then good things happened,” said Bowling.
Bowling’s base knock sparked a mosh pit in the dugout straight out of a Rage Against The Machine concert.
The Spartans added an insurance run after back-to-back walks to Makana Olaso and Reece Hernandez to make it a four run two-out rally.
Brady Hill came in the ninth inning after scoring a run in the eighth inning to close up shop and earn his fourth save of the year.
For the second straight day the offense squeaked out late-inning production to reel in a win while the pitching staff held it down the entire game.
Micky Thompson got the start and improved from his last start against Portland where he went 2.1 innings allowing six earned runs and seven walks.
On Sunday he went 4.2 IP allowing only one run while walking five batters. So far this season, Thompson’s greatest rival is his command.
Mr. Crocker had the Fairly Odd Parents, Jerry Seinfeld had Newman while Thompson is bitter rivals with the strike zone.
When Thomspon lives in the zone he’s able to get outs when mixing pitches all over the plate, busting righties inside and getting sky-high pop ups in crucial situations. He ended up allowing three hits and only one of them was an extra base hit.
The fifth inning could’ve been nearly disastrous, as Thompson left with the bases loaded and two outs after giving up a single and three walks, leaving Corey Sanchez to come in.
The situation wasn’t as messy as a porta potty at Coachella, but it wasn’t sparkling clean either.
Sanchez came up huge, getting a lazy fly out to right field to end the inning. The Lobos wasted a huge opportunity and kept the Spartans within striking distance.
Sunday’s win marked the first conference series win of the year and provided a big statement to the Mountain West that SJSU won’t roll over when the going gets tough.
