By Marissa Scott (@marissascotttt ):
San Jose State pitching collapsed and buckled under pressure in its 14-4 loss against the University of Nevada at Reno (8-6, 5-1) on Sunday.
SJSU (6-9, 0-5 MW) was outscored 35-17 in the three-game series. Spartan pitching has now allowed 10 or more runs in four straight conference games.
For the entire weekend, the Spartans were unable to hang on to leads. As soon as SJSU could grab ahold of the lead, the pitching couldn’t seem to get out of long innings.
In Sunday’s game, the Spartans chipped away cutting a 4-1 run deficit to 4-3 in the sixth. In the bottom half, the game broke open. SJSU used three different pitchers in the sixth and instead of going to the seventh down a run, they were down five all over again.
Senior left-fielder Brett Bautista hit a solo shot in the fourth inning for the first Spartan hit and ended the game with two RBIs. The senior is second on the team in RBI with 12 on the year and tops the team in slugging percentage.
Freshman Nicholas Morales (1-3) made his fourth start for the Spartans and gave up four runs in four innings.
In the fifth inning, senior Jake Swiech took over the mound for the first time since he was taken out for an unknown injury in the 10-0 loss against the University of San Francisco when he went three innings.
The senior only pitched 0.2 innings and gave up six of the seven runs in the sixth.
For the Wolf Pack, eight of their nine starters had at least one RBIs Sunday, but didn’t hit a homerun against the Spartans. The Wolf Pack hit two homeruns in the first two games of the series.
Freshman Jake Jackson made his fourth start and fifth appearance of the season for the Wolf Pack with a 0.47 ERA. The freshman gave up three runs to the Spartans, the most he has given up all season.
SJSU remains winless in its five conference games this season and has lost three straight.
The Spartans hope to put a stop to their losing streak when they welcome the University of the Pacific to Municipal Stadium on Tuesday night.