By Matt Weiner (@MattWeiner20) – BSB Beat Reporter
SJSU 8 (9-6, 2-3) vs Nevada 19 (6-5, 3-1)
Winning pitcher: Peyton Stumbo (3-0)
Losing pitcher: Darren Jansen (2-1)
Sometimes boxscores are deceptive and offer cloudy representations of what transpired.
Then others are opaque and tell you exactly what happened, kind of like the title of “Snakes on a Plane.” No spoilers, but it’s about snakes that are on a plane.
The Spartans gave up 19 runs on 16 hits, nine walks and three errors and fell drastically short because of the woes from the pitching staff.
Nevada’s run-parade began against Spartans starting pitcher Ethan Ross.
When Ross is on a first-name basis with the strike zone, he cruises through lineups with minor damage. However, when he and the strike zone are strangers, he sets himself up to get rocked.
“Ethan is as talented as anybody,” said SJSU head coach Brad Sanfilippo. “For us trying to be as good as we can be we are trying to get Ethan to be there and I think today was a step in the right direction.”
In his first two innings of work, he got out of jams forcing the Wolfpack to strand four runners.
Crisis control faltered during a five-run third inning that saw Nevada bring 10 batters to the plate, on two walks and one hit by pitch.
Matt Clayton delivered the only extra base hit of the inning on a double to right field that a drifting Hunter Dorraugh wasn’t able to snag, scoring two runners.
Following the double, Ross gave up two walks and a single, before getting Jacob Stinson to ground out to Dalton Bowling to end the inning.
The 2-0 lead the Spartans built in the first inning was washed over and forgotten.
Ross got through two more frames, ending his day with five innings allowing five earned and six total, eight hits, four walks, three hit batters and one strikeout. His ERA has now ballooned up to 12.56.
After going down 6-2, Spartans led a four-run comeback on the back of three home runs.
It started with Robert Hamchuk and James Shimashita going back-to-back in the fifth inning.
Shimashita has been riding a six-game hitting streak and is now hitting .750 during that span.
“We scored first, they grabbed it back and we didn’t go away. We came back and tied it 6-6.” Sanfilippo said.
Bowling and Charles McAdoo threw their hats in the ring, making the most of the short porch and tree-snapping breeze to left field.
The mini fireworks show from the Spartans is easily forgotten with the pitching staff giving up 13 runs in the last three innings.
Darren Jansen came in for Ross in the sixth with the score knotted up at six and took a match to any chances of win, allowing five earned.
“I don’t think Darren executed spots as much as he would have liked,” Sanfilippo said.
It was the beginning of the end as Cade Van Allen came in an inning later and gave up seven earned runs putting the Spartans in the dark territory of allowing 20 runs. ‘
Nevada’s Dario Gomez was the big kahuna of the afternoon, boasting a 4-6 day at the plate with a triple, four runs and three RBI.
The three-game winning streak the Spartans had coming into Nevada could now be reversed as they are in jeopardy of dropping three in a row if they lose tomorrow.