By Ernie Gonzalez
San Jose State is coming off arguably its best loss of the season, if such losses exist, as it fell to No.14 Stanford in Palo Alto on Tuesday, 4-3.
The bats, belts and gloves will return to Mountain West combat over the weekend, as the team will invite the rival Aztecs (31-15, 14-7 MW) to town. It will be the last conference three-gamer at home for the Spartans, as they remain in the hunt for the crucial fourth place slot in the conference.
SJSU (15-27-1, 8-14-1 MW) has dropped six of its last seven contests against the Aztecs, including in the last year’s Mountain West tournament.
Back in April, SJSU was swept out of San Diego thanks to a bullpen that crumbled late in two of the three games.
San Diego State is coming off an impressive win at UCLA, by virtue of two home runs in the top of the ninth, beating the Bruins 8-6.
Prior to their victory in Los Angeles, the Aztecs dropped three of four, including a series defeat against the first place New Mexico Lobos.
Six of the last seven times the Aztecs have taken the field away from Tony Gwynn Stadium, they have came out victorious.
Nonetheless, the Spartans will put up a fight to put a dent on their road success the second-place Aztecs have had.
Game one will certainly be the tone-setter of the series, the same way it was earlier in the season when the two squads met in April.
In that first game, the Spartans had a 4-3 lead against SDSU in the later innings, the relievers couldn’t hold off the Aztecs, as they fell in game one 5-4. The rest of the series wasn’t close.
Winning game one is important but the ultimate goal by Sunday will be to win the series.
Now is certainly the right time to start putting some pressure on the gas pedal for the Spartans, as they currently sit 1.5 games behind fourth-place Air Force, who is red-hot, winners of seven straight.
Game one’s first pitch will be Friday at 7:00 p.m.
