By Casey Geier
The Spartans lost a tight one in extra innings to the Aztecs.
SJSU (15-29-1) trailed for the entirety of the game against SDSU (33-15), but tied it up in the bottom of the eighth after a multitude of miscues by the Aztecs.
“Late in the game they kept battling, there’s no fault at all offensively,” said head coach Jason Hawkins. “I thought Jake Swiech did a great job, that’s gonna get lost in all this, but he did a heck of a job pitching until the eighth.”
Swiech started for the Spartans and gave up three runs with two strikeouts after being pulled in the top of the 8th. “It was a tough one to lose for sure,” Swiech said. I thought we fought pretty well during the late innings, but it just didn’t happen for us.” Swiech held the Aztecs scoreless during six out of the eight innings he pitched.
The Spartans got back into the game after two balks from Aztec pitcher CJ Saylor drove in two runs during the bottom of the eighth, tying the game at three a piece.
SJSU was unable to take the lead in the ninth and in extra innings, leaving seven players on base during the final four innings of the game.
Now, the Spartans will likely need to win out or have a number of things go their way in order to have even a chance of securing the fourth seed.
“We haven’t had a ton of success in the past, we got a lot of first this year accomplishing a lot of things, but we still got work to do,” Hawkins said.
SJSU plays Utah State at home Sunday at 11 a.m.