By Alex Stoev (@alexstoevsjsu) – Spear Photographer | Senior left fielder Jake McCoy’s home run swing vs the Lopes (Photo by Alex Stoev – Spear Photographer)
Hitting was everywhere for San Jose State baseball (19-24, 6-10 MW) in its 8-3 victory over Grand Canyon University (16-27, 6-10 MW).
Throughout the game, the Spartans were able to hammer three home runs off the Lopes pitching staff.
The first came in the third inning from senior left fielder Jake McCoy, who moved into seventh all-time for most home runs in a season in SJSU history with 14.
“It feels good, I started this season off with a little bit of a struggle for sure,” McCoy said. “Took a day off then from there on out we just tried to go and now here we are.”
Redshirt junior third baseman JC Osorio-Agard added a three-run homer in the fifth inning and senior shortstop Rocco Caballero put the nail in the coffin with a two-run homer in the eighth inning.
Caballero running to celebrate with the team after his eighth inning home run. (Photo by Alex Stoev – Spear Photographer)
While the offense was racking up hits, senior pitcher David Thomas was preventing Grand Canyon from doing the same.
He would have a complete game, giving up three runs on six hits and having seven strikeouts.
He said it felt great for him to be able to pitch the entire game.
“You know I did it earlier in the year and that just set me up for later in the season,” Thomas said. “Just getting ahead with first pitch, strikes, and keeping them off the bases and the offense did their thing so it was easy to go out there and do my thing.”
This game marked Thomas’ fourth win of the season.
With the win, the Spartans sit one game out of a spot in the Mountain West Tournament behind the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
For SJSU head coach Brad Sanfilippo, every series moving forward is the most important.
“They’re all big at this point,” Sanfilippo said. “It’s the Mountain West. It’s kind of what it is every year to try to get in the tournament against relatively competitive teams.”
For the players, sticking to the plan is the name of the game to get back to the tournament.
“We got to take it one game at a time and just keep doing what we’re doing,” McCoy said. “We came into this with nine games left and it’s like nine playoff games.”
The Spartans will look to break their tie in the conference with GCU in the second game of the three-game series at 2:05 p.m. on Saturday at Excite Ballpark.
