Photo by Kavin Mistry
By Matt Weiner (@MattWeiner20) – BSB Beat Reporter
SDSU 2 (4-13, 0-4) vs SJSU 3 (10-8, 3-4)
Winning pitcher: Corey Sanchez (3-0)
Losing pitcher: Jacob Flores (1-2)
Save: Brady Hill (6)
It was refreshing for the Spartans to go into the seventh inning tied at two instead of the game being virtually decided.
During the four previous losses, 12-6 was the closest margin in a game that was heading into the top of the seventh inning.
“We feel comfortable there,” said SJSU head coach Brad Sanfilippo. “Our guys have been able to have good at bats and manufacture runs in situations in which we needed them to.”
With Jonathan Clark and Corey Sanchez keeping the Aztecs’ bats quiet, Danny Zimmerman was set up to uncork a solo home run into the starry sky, giving the Spartans a 3-2 lead.
“As a team offensively, we are trying to be blind of the scoreboard,” Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman’s no-doubter wouldn’t have been made impossible if Clark started the game off on the wrong foot.
Clark delivered five innings, giving up no earned runs and two total runs which occurred on a dropped pop-up that was followed by a two-run triple by Cole Carigg in the fifth inning.
Minus that, it was smooth sailing for him as he helped right a ship that was in the eye of choppy waters.
Starting pitchers allowed 26 runs in 11.1 innings during the four-game losing streak and Clark reared the ugly head by sticking with the same game plan he’s been working on since day one.
“There are times where something doesn’t go exactly right and you want to change it,” Clark said. “But it’s just trusting the work we put in and what we’ve been doing for so long.”
The triple allowed to Carigg was the only hard-hit ball Clark allowed and made many of the six Aztecs’ he struck out look completely confused in the process. Some were chasing high-cheese at their eyes and others were trying to slap shot curveballs in the dirt that were a couple feet below their bat.
Excellent pitching didn’t stop at Clark as each reliever that followed him threw up a zero in the boxscore.
Corey Sanchez came in for Clark in the sixth inning and whipped up 2.1 innings of scoreless baseball on his own.
The zeros being put up can be duplicitous when factoring in how tight the top of the eighth inning got.
SDSU had the bases loaded with one out after Deron Johnson singled, Charlie Rhee walked and Brian Leonhardt was hit by a pitch.
The situation wasn’t in favor of Cammarata, but numbers were leaning his way with SDSU hitting 1-15 with runners on at the time and facing Johnny Giannola who was 0-3 at the time with two strikeouts.
Advantage went to Cammarata in the out department as he got Giannola to hit a lazy fly out to left that was plenty deep to score Johnson on third. Oddly, Johnson didn’t tag up and score what would have been the tying run.
Sanfilippo gave the ball to Brady Hill to get out the inning and he did just that by getting Kenny Lebeau to hit a flyball that scraped the side of a Delta plane flying overhead.
Hitting 1-17 with runners on and 1-8 with runners in scoring position are cardinal sins that belong to be expressed in a confession night.
The heart-thumping eighth paved way for an uneventful ninth as Hill mowed down the Aztecs 1-2-3.
The Spartans continue to show that as long as they keep the game in arms-reach late, anything can happen.