By Brianna Huffmaster (@bhuffmaster2024) – Spear Reporter
SJSU baseball head coach Brad Sanfilippo arguing with the home plate umpire following his eighth inning ejection | Photo by Nick Orozco – The Spear
One way to fire up a baseball dugout is through an ejection. In a one-run game in the bottom of the eighth, a disagreement of a balk call caused the home plate umpire to throw San Jose State head coach Brad Sanfilippo out of the game.
“(Firing up the dugout) wasn’t my motivation,” Sanfilippo said. “I obviously disagreed with the (balk) call. We had some opportunities and we didn’t cash those in.”
SJSU baseball (18-25, 13-11 MW) lost 6-4 in a Bay Area rubber matchup against Saint Mary’s (26-16, 10-5 WCC) Tuesday afternoon. Not only did coach Sanfilippo get tossed, but the offense didn’t take advantage of opportunities going into the final stretch.
The bats were quiet until the fourth inning when catcher Jake Maroney hit a RBI single with two outs to put the Spartans on the board. Later in the fifth, a sac fly from left fielder Robert Hamchuk and RBI single from second baseman Dalton Bowling cut the Gaels lead to one.
In the seventh, third baseman Nathan Cadena hit into a fielder’s choice to score shortstop Theo Hardy which knotted the game at four apiece.
After the Gaels scored two in the eighth, the Spartans entered the ninth without Sanfilippo and had their final chance to tie or take the lead. First baseman Hunter Dorraugh started the inning with a single that provided the 3-4-5 hitters in Cadena, Hamchuk and Bowling opportunities to produce.
Yet, the three were unable to produce anything to end the game.
“We went down early and showed some light tying it back up,” Hamchuk said. “I think that’s a positive that we can take away from this.”
Tyler Albanese started on the bump and finished with a stat line of four runs, four hits and three strikeouts in three innings pitched. The bullpen gave up two runs in the late innings but close enough to still give the team hope that the offense would pull through.
The previous series against UNLV proved that SJSU could come back and win from a deficit. But the script was not the same against Saint Mary’s. Despite this, Sanfilippo praises the resilience of the team.
“I think we have certainly demonstrated that we are tough and resilient,” Sanfilippo said. “There’s been a number of things this (season) that have shown the character of this group.”
SJSU has a few days to regroup before going back on a plane to play a Mountain West series against Air Force. This is a pivotal series as Air Force sits right behind SJSU in the conference standings with a few weeks left of regular season play.
“Things didn’t go our way today, but we got a big weekend coming up and we gotta get prepared for that,” Bowling said. “Fighting for a playoff spot in the tournament, so it’s just another opportunity to get better.”
First pitch is set for 2 p.m. Friday at Erdle Field in Colorado Springs, Colo.