By Marissa Scott
San Jose State baseball finished its regular season with a sweep in a 3-1 win over Air Force Saturday afternoon.
The Spartans (26-28, 16-14 MW) held the Falcons (24-20, 12-17 MW) scoreless through eight innings and captured their second series sweep of the season.
The Spartans have either won or tied their last six series of the season. The team climbed from seventh place to the third in that time.
“Coach Flip just told us to grab a shovel and start digging,” said senior left fielder Brett Bautista. “To be able to play good baseball the last month and a half has been good for us.”
Junior right hander Tevin Cadola, senior right hander Cameron Keup and junior left hader Zach Wallace held the Falcons to just five hits through eight frames while striking out seven.
“Our pitching has allowed us to get where we are going,” said interim head coach Brad Sanfilippo. “The boys did a great job today.”
The game was scoreless until the sixth inning when junior shortstop Aaron Pleschner doubled down the right-field line and made it to third on an error. Bautista hit a sacrifice fly to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead.
SJSU scored first in every game in the series and the team is 18-11 when drawing first blood.
In the next inning, SJSU added insurance runs off an RBI-single by sophomore right fielder Anders Davidson followed by a Bautista bases-loaded walk to give the team a three-run lead.
Although senior right hander Josh Goldberg gave up a run in the top of the ninth, he snagged his second save of the season and solidified the sweep.
“We got the win and that’s all that matters,” Bautista said. “To be able to sweep a good ball team is good for our team. It gives us some confidence going into the Mountain West Tournament.”
The eight seniors: Bautista, Goldberg, Keup, Jake Swiech, Shane Timmons, David Campbell, Kyle Morrison and Chris Williams were all honored before the game for their hard work and dedication to the team. Throughout the game, many of them were substituted out so the crowd could give them a standing ovation.
“A lot of the seniors are some of the best friends I’ll have for the rest of my life,” Pleschner said. “It’s cool to send them out that way, they deserve it. They deserve everything.”
The Spartans are the hottest team heading into the Mountain West Conference Tournament. They will face No. 2 San Diego State on Thursday night at 6 p.m. to start the tournament.
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