By Nicholas Orozco (@nickorozco03) – Guest Writer
SJSU baseball (2-2) fought back after being 4-0 early to University of Washington (3-2), having the lead at one point, but lost by one in the ninth 7-6.
Cade Van Allen got his first start of the season, pitching into the fifth inning, his start ended after giving up a homerun to leadoff hitter Coby Morales, followed by a walk.
Van Allen’s day ended and following him were pitchers Nathan Hansen, Jack White and Keaton Chase.
“Jack White pitched really well today to kinda steer the ship a bit and give us an opportunity to win,” said head coach Brad Sanfilippo following the one-run loss.
Coming into pitch in the sixth, he would throw three and a thirds of an inning while only allowing two runs.
On the flip side, the offense would get a late start as they started to drive in runs in the fifth inning. Driving in two runs from the bats of Theo Hardy and Matt Spear.
In the seventh, the Spartans brought home three runs and took the lead after the Huskies’ Josh Emanuels threw a wild pitch allowing Jack Colette to score from third.
Washington was able to respond to SJSU by scoring one run in the eighth and two more in the ninth, making the score 7-5 going into the bottom of the ninth for the Spartans.
With no outs in the ninth with bases loaded, first baseman Dalton Bowling would fly-out to right field and allowed Charles McAdoo to tag up from third. Next up in line was Hardy who walked, loading the bases again for a game tying opportunity for pinch hitter Jeriah Lewis.
Lewis would fly out to left, pinch runner Neil Jansen made an attempt to tag up and come home, the throw beat him at home ending the match-up 7-6 for the Huskies.
“We went down four today, you’d like to keep that a little closer going into the middle inning,” Sanfilippo said. “When we have an opportunity to add to that lead we had, we need to do that.”
SJSU will continue to take on University of Washington tomorrow at 1:05 p.m. for the second of a four game series.
