Jonathan Clark (via SJSU Athletics)
By Matt Weiner (@MattWeiner20) – BSB Beat Reporter
The Spartans did something on May 26 that they only did six times a season ago: win a baseball game.
Thursday’s 2-1 win over No. 2 seed Nevada in game one of the Mountain West Tournament was a marvelous display of pitching heroics and an offense that was capable of doing just enough to squeeze by.
There isn’t much to mention on offense that glowingly paints the win.
Albeit, Jack Colette’s triple in the first that led to a run following a sacrifice ground out from Charles McAdoo and an Omar Gastelum warning track sacrifice fly in the fourth, the offense was put in a muzzle.
The Spartans went 2-11 with two outs, went 2-18 with runners on and 0-8 with runners in scoring position. These offensive stallings are more than enough to drive SJSU head coach Brad Sanfilippo and his staff, as well as the Spartan faithful up a wall.
The squandered opportunities are left in the footnotes of history because Jonathon Clark and Darren Jansen put on performances that belong in a scroll dedicated to the best moments of SJSU athletics.
Before the tournament started, Sanfilippo made a heavy statement by saying that Jonathan Clark was “our guy.” Being the “guy” comes with great honor and is something that is worn around like a precious medallion. It’s a definition based upon the idea of leadership and prestige.
And as the chosen leader, Clark did everything he could to lead the Spartans through the promised gates in San Diego.
The Wolf Pack are an offense that will sink their teeth into opponents and maniacally rip flesh from bone. Their starting lineup came in hitting .311 on the season and averaged 15 runs in their four regular season wins against the Spartans.
If today’s matchup taught fans anything, it’s that in postseason play, the slate is wiped clean and the only thing that matters are the nine innings on your plate.
Six of those nine innings were vacuumed by Clark, as he allowed one run, three hits, two walks and finished with three strikeouts.
Following the second inning, he didn’t strike out another batter, instead, he fell into a groove of locating pitches and relied upon the seven Spartans behind him to have his back.
Six phenomenal innings from Clark were enough to stay ahead through the first two thirds of the game, however one chunk of that third remained. In those crucial final three innings, Jansen had an appetite for destruction and effortlessly scraped the plate.
Rendering Nevada scoreless for the final three innings of the game was impressive and familiar. In a potentially season-defining game on Sunday, April 24 Jansen stifled the Wolf Pack for four-straight innings, holding them to no runs while striking out six.
This same energy was brought out from the freshly named All-Mountain West First Team reliever.
In one inning less of work, Jansen put the Wolf Pack in a choke hold, allowing one runner to reach on a single while posting 1-2-3 innings in the seventh and ninth.
As the Spartans travel deeper into the tournament, there are few scenarios that see them winning a ball game while only scoring two runs. Eventually, their hand will get caught in the cookie jar because wins like this are sneakily taken, not forcefully snatched.
In the meantime, bask in the glory of a moment that wasn’t supposed to happen.