By Madyson Montoya — Staff Writer
San Jose State baseball (18-16, 12-4 MW) won the first game of the series against UNLV (20-16, 7-9 MW) by continuing to put up unanswered runs.
SJSU started out the game strong and scored two runs in the first frame. Junior Kellen Strahm made his way home on junior Blake Berry’s double to left field.
Berry was able to cross the plate before the end of the inning to give SJSU a two-run lead.
The Rebels responded in the bottom half of the first and made it 2-1 on an RBI single from Edarian Williams.
There was a shift in power as UNLV took the lead in the third inning on an RBI single and groundout to senior infielder Aaron Pleschner.
The Spartans managed to tie the game up in the sixth inning when freshman Nico Malbrough singled to left field and junior Nick Knecht ran in for the third Spartan run.
That was just the start of the momentum. The first three SJSU batters got a hit in the top of the seventh and it finished the inning up 6-3.
Sophomore Nicholas Morales took the mound in the seventh and it was one, two, three from there. He pitched two scoreless innings with three strikeouts.
SJSU was not done yet as Strahm homered to left field in the ninth.
The Rebels were unable to answer back and the Spartans took the four-run victory.
Senior Andrew Mitchel (3-4) tossed 6.0 innings and allowed three runs on seven hits, while striking out nine.
The next game of the series is Saturday at 6:05 p.m.
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