By Georgia Blair — Staff Writer
San Jose State baseball (19-32, 12-15 MW) was swept at home after dropping the series finale to Nevada (28-24, 14-16 MW), 3-2.
A one-run loss on senior day was the final nail in the coffin for the third-straight Mountain West series sweep against the Spartans.
“We have put ourselves in this position,” said head coach Brad Sanfilippo.
Junior third base Troy Viola hit a solo home run, his third of the season, to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead in the second.
The Wolf Pack answered back in the fifth and sixth innings and scored three runs.
“We just need to play our own brand of baseball and bounce back,” Viola said. “One big hit isn’t going to win us games all the time. We all have to start hitting to be successful.”
In the eighth, the Spartans were able to load the bases with junior Nick Knecht at the plate. The first baseman hit a towering fly ball that many fans thought was headed for a trip over the wall.
Nevada’s right fielder made the catch on the warning track and only one run crossed on the sacrifice fly, making it a 3-2 ballgame.
“I was just trying to avoid grounding into a double play,” Knecht said. “It is an emotional day [for the seniors] and it sucks that we couldn’t avoid the loss today.”
The Spartans scattered four hits on the day and just 15 hits on the weekend, while leaving 29 runners on base.
“The way I see it is that if we win a series next week, we are in [the tournament] and that’s completely in our hands,” Sanfilippo said.
Despite the loss, ten Spartans seniors were honored prior to the game in a special ceremony.
“I am so proud of those guys,” Sanfilippo said. “They have contributed so much to this program and they are going to leave behind big shoes to fill, but before they leave we still have work to do.”
The Spartans now sit in fourth place in the MW conference standings — just one game ahead of Nevada.
Their next series against Air Force Academy (24-25, 10-13 MW) has now become the biggest series of the year with a place in the MW tournament at stake.
The final regular season series starts Friday in Colorado Springs.
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