By Anfisa Pitchkhadze – Spear Reporter | Senior pitcher Win Scott on the mound during a 2-0 win over Air Force on March 23. | (Photo by Ethan Ndachi – Spear Reporter)
San Jose State baseball (15-8, 4-2 MW) earns its fifth win in a row, shutting out Air Force (7-16, 2-4 MW) resulting in a 2-0 victory.
In a low-scoring game, the Spartans only earned both of their runs in the third inning. The first run came when sophomore outfielder Neil Jansen scored from senior outfielder Alex Fernandes singling to left field.
Senior infielder Zach Chamizo had a game, going 3-for-4 at bat along with an RBI.
Chamizo singled, allowing Fernandes to earn a run to make the game 2-0 that was at first a questionable call for the umpire to review.
“Getting hits is always good for everyone involved in getting base runners and then being able to move guys over and scoring as many times as possible really is the key to win,” Chamizo said.
Though SJSU put up a couple of runs on the board, it had the bases loaded in the bottom of fifth but was unsuccessful to capitalize on opportunities to earn more runs to expand the lead.
Despite Air Force’s loss, SJSU head coach Brad Sanfilippo praised the Falcons’ execution on the mound.
“We did strike out 10 times today which obviously is not where we want to be, but we did enough,” Sanfilippo said. … “We needed to win whatever game showed up and a much closer game showed up today.”
The Spartans scored 14 runs in each of its first two games against Air Force in the series and Sanfilippo acknowledged that every baseball game goes differently.
Senior pitcher Win Scott was a key contributor for the Spartans; recording a career-high 10 strikeouts and only allowing two hits in the first seven innings.
“They [SJSU] put two runs on the board and then I kind of was able to not look back from there and trusted the defense and kept making plays like they did,” Scott said.
In the fifth inning, Scott notably made a play that got the crowd hyped. The Falcons hit the ball up in the air and Scott ran towards the net to make a catch to secure a third out.
“I kept running after it and it came back by a few inches and I was able to get it,” Scott said.
SJSU went 3-0 in its series marking the first sweep against Air Force since 2018.
The Spartans plan to head on the road to face off against No. 14 Stanford on Monday 2:05 p.m. at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond.
