By Georgia Blair — Staff Writer
San Jose State baseball (19-29, 12-13 MW) continues to struggle in conference play with their ninth-straight Mountain West loss.
The Spartans fell to Nevada (26-24, 12-16 MW) 3-1 in another heartbreaking contest.
“We had all the opportunities,” said head coach Brad Sanfilippo. “We just didn’t execute and that’s the bottom line.”
Senior Andrew Mitchel threw seven innings, six scoreless, in his final career start at home. He gave up three runs on five hits.
The Spartans battled against a strong outing from Nevada’s starter, but neither team was able to bring anyone across until the seventh.
The Wolf Pack scored three in the seventh after some costly defensive mistakes, which would prove to be enough to walk away with the win.
“It’s for sure going to be an emotional weekend, I will never pitch on this mound again in my career,” Mitchel said. “It is tough to lose games like this but we have to come out tomorrow and find a way.”
The Spartans were able to get one run back in the eighth inning after senior Kellen Strahm was hit by a pitch and junior Blake Berry doubled off the left field wall to bring him home.
“We just have to trust in our game and our guys tomorrow,” Berry said. “We have to play for each other and we can’t back down just because we are in a rough patch.”
SJSU had the bases loaded with two outs in the eighth but could not capitalize.
Sophomore Nicholas Morales and senior Zach Wallace combined for the last two innings on the hill, but the damage was already done.
“Every game is important from here on out and we have to find out how to win,” Sanfilippo said.
The Spartans return to Excite Ballpark for Game 2 of the series Saturday at 2 p.m.
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