By Daniel Reedy
When called to pinch hit in the eighth inning, Jack Veasey stepped up to the plate — literally and figuratively.
Veasey ripped a three-run homer to take the lead for San Jose State in what led to a 6-5 victory for the Spartans (13-18-1, 7-7-1 in MW) over the Nevada Wolf Pack (9-26, 5-11 in MW) in the first contest of a three-game series.
The game was tied at three heading into the game-changing eighth inning after the Spartans got RBIs earlier in the game from Kyle Blakeman, Kellen Strahm and Chris Williams’ solo home run.
Catcher Joe Stefanki and second baseman Kyle Morrison each had three of SJSU’s 13 hits.
It wasn’t the Spartan pitching staff’s best performance, conceding 5 earned runs, 3 of which are owned by starter Matt Brown. Brown’s velocity is a plus and contributed heavily to his 8 Ks, but he walked 3 more batters and leads the conference with 37 free passes. He also gave up 8 hits and needed 98 pitches to get through 5 innings.
Graham Gomez was the only Spartan pitcher to not concede a run, but he only threw for ⅔ innings.
Hilario Tovar (1⅓ innings) and Josh Goldberg (2 innings) each gave up 1 run.
Nevada’s starter Trevor Charpie threw 6 and half innings, allowing three runs off nine hits and hurled 122 pitches. Charpie and the two Wolf Pack relievers needed 159 total pitches to complete the game.
With today’s victory, SJSU is now 4-0 against Nevada the season, following a sweep in San Jose just under a month ago. While that stat insinuates that the Spartans have been dominant, each of the four contests has been won by exactly one run.
Veasey’s and Williams’ bombs were just the eighth and ninth of the year for SJSU. They sit in last place in the conference in home runs behind only Nevada who has nearly twice as many. Catcher Marco Valenzuela hit the Wolf Pack’s 17th homer of the season on the way to a 3-for-5 performance.
Designated hitter Kaleb Foster also had 3 hits for Nevada and second baseman Keenan Smith led the team with 3 RBIs in his 2-for-4 day.
After losing their first 14 road games, the Spartans have now won back-to-back games away from
Municipal Stadium.
SJSU is 3-1-1 in the last five games and Nevada is now on a three-game losing streak and has lost five of its last six games.
Game 2 of the series begins at 2 p.m. on Friday.