By Lucas Quick (@quick_lucas12) – Senior Staff Writer | Cade Cushing delivers in effort of a solid first three innings (Photo by Lucas Quick – The Spear)
A sloppy outing with multiple mistakes set San Jose State back in a 13-5 loss to St. Mary’s on Tuesday evening.
Both teams sat at eight hits apiece, but three errors and multiple wild pitches would eventually be the deciding factor.
After a quiet first three innings, the tempo picked up quickly in the fourth and fifth innings. Both teams had a combined 10 runs.
With two outs in the fifth inning, graduate student Joey Cammarata attempted to pick off a runner at second base. In a close call, the umpires called it safe.
The Spartans would allow three more runs, two of them coming from an error where Cammarata hit the base runner running to first base.
They went down from 4-1 to 7-1 in a short span.
Despite scoring three runs in the next inning, too many sequences similar to that backfired for SJSU. After the eighth inning, it couldn’t handle it anymore.
“You got to stop the bleeding so it doesn’t turn into a big inning,” SJSU head coach Brad Sanfilippo said. “But in both of those big innings, we really weren’t able to do that.”
The bullpen, led by junior Cade Cushing, had its rough patches during the course of the game. After a solid three innings, he allowed three runs in the fourth inning and ended his day.
Redshirt junior Timmy Reeve was the brightest spot in the bullpen. In two solid innings, he allowed one hit and one run.
“I think this was his best outing,” Sanfilippo said. “I was really excited with the way he threw the ball and if he continues to throw it that way, he’s got an opportunity to help us.”
Offensively, there were positives as well. With not a ton of opportunities, the Spartans still took advantage majority of the time with runners in scoring position, knocking in five runs on just eight hits.
More chances could have been capped off though, with 11 runners left on base during the course of the match.
This is the second consecutive game where SJSU has suffered a blow out loss. Looking towards heavy conference play in their upcoming schedule, a turnaround is needed.
“The happiest animal in the kingdom is a goldfish, because it has a memory of ten seconds,” redshirt senior Zach Tallerman said. “You got to be a goldfish, you have to move on and get ready for Thursday, Friday, Saturday because that’s big.”
The Spartans close out their season with seven of their last nine opponents being in the Mountain West Conference. They’ll look to flip the script in their opening series match against San Diego State on Thursday at 6:05 p.m. at Excite Ballpark.
