(Photo by Kavin Mistry)
By Matt Weiner (@MattWeiner20) – BSB Beat Reporter
The best thing I could come up with to ask Spartans head coach Brad Sanfilippo after a crushing 19-8 defeat against the Nevada Wolf Pack was “do you want to rip the band aid off?”
For all the lovely moments I get to experience, the dreaded post game press conference proceeding an ugly loss adds some prickly thorns to a beautiful rose bush.
Sanfilippo chuckled at my attempt to avoid any awkward confrontation, but he knew just as well as I did that from March 11-13 the Spartans played some of their worst baseball all year. The three-game sweep that occurred in the Wolf Pack’s scenic stadium was a one-sided bludgeoning. The Spartans were outscored 46-25 and had a bullpen that couldn’t stop a nosebleed.
The results fell right in line with the Mountain West preseason coaches poll that had the Spartans finishing dead last and the Wolfpack finishing first. At that point, you would’ve thought Nostradamous put in a ballot or two.
Fast forward to April 24th at 2:30 p.m. at Excite Ballpark and the script was flipped.
This win felt momentous and the feeling afterwards couldn’t compare to the other 20 wins accomplished thus far.
Winning 9-2 while starter Aaron Eden delivered a crisp five innings of two run ball and Darren Jansen overpowered the Wolf Pack with a big-boy heater and sharp slider for four innings plus timely hitting made for an enjoyable afternoon in the ballpark.
Those details are all that and a bag of chips, but the true distinctive quality of Sunday’s win was the Spartans resolve.
Friday April 23 featured a gutsy win in which right fielder James Shimashita was able to clutch up and deliver a single to take the Spartans from down one to up one.
It was an emotional win that carried a hope for translating into Saturday.
That hope was crushed and flattened as the Spartans lost 14-3. Minus the herds of Wolf Pack fans, Excite Ballpark lacked its familiar pulse and vibrancy created by families of friends.
The dejected feeling afterwards was awful, but not novel as it was their fourth time getting blown out by the Wolf Pack.
Less than 24 hours later, the Spartans found a way out of the bottom of the well and rock climbed their way back to victory. There was no rolling over and accepting that the pre-season coaches poll was prophetic.
The upbeat energy that was incognito on Saturday, reappeared right away on Sunday, evidenced by Eden’s two-minute first inning. From there it took the offense a little while to get going.
Down 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth the Spartans unleashed a battery ram of offense that knocked the Wolf Pack’s proverbial door down.
It started with the apex of station-by-station baseball. Jack Colette led off with a walk, followed by back-to-back singles from Nathan Cadena and Makana Olaso. It put Reece Hernandez and the next two batters behind him in fortuitous positions to succeed.
Hernandez’s double was followed up with a Jackson Forbes pinch hit double to right and capped off with a home run by Robert Hamchuk.
Nathan Cadena twisted the knife even deeper with a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth that made it a 9-2 game.
Sunday was excellent mouthwash to get rid of the acrid taste from Saturday while refreshing the pallet.
The team that won six games the previous season and had lost 10-straight to the Wolf Pack heading into the series was nowhere to be found.
The Spartans were knocked down, staring at the clouds that lay softly above them and decided to get off their backs and deliver a skull-crushing uppercut.