The San Jose State baseball team’s two-game winning streak ended Wednesday afternoon at Excite Ballpark, where the bats went silent with runners on base.
The firepower of the Spartans’ offense could not prevail against Saint Mary’s College, as SJSU lost 8-3.
Junior third baseman Dalton Bowling went 2-for-4 with a second inning homer while scoring two runs. Junior first baseman Hunter Dorraugh went 1-for-4 with a late eighth inning home run.
“Our guys know if we wanted a chance to get back in the game, it was right there,” Manager Brad Sanfilippo said. “I wasn’t super pleased with our effort today, we did have opportunities to flip that game a little bit.”
The Spartans came into the game outscoring their opponents 43-25 in total of their last five games.
Despite the 8 hits and 3 extra base hits, SJSU could not capitalize, as they left eight runners stranded.
Bowling’s home run in the second inning put the Spartans up 1-0 and the score looked to be the spark that set the offense up for the rest of the game.
“I just tried to stay balanced,” Bowling said. “I got a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it.”
Bowling hit a double and later scored in the sixth inning that cut the deficit 4-2.
“You’re just trying to get the momentum back in our dugout,” Bowling said. “I trust every single one of the people in the dugout to score me and that’s all I was just trying to do.”
Bowling is batting .326 and leads the team with 14 RBI’s.
Starting pitcher Aaron Eden came into the game with a 5.40 ERA in 15 innings pitched thus far this season.
Eden said he felt smoother on the mound than in previous outings.
“I just been working through some things, so I definitely felt good,” Eden said. “I definitely felt good, I felt in rhythm, I felt on time just with my delivery.”
Eden had his best outing of the season Wednesday, retiring all six batters he faced with no walks and one strikeout.
“I’m just looking to beat them,” Eden said. “Whether I have a strikeout, groundout, pop up, I was just looking to retire them.”
Sanfilippo said he took out Eden after two innings because it was a bullpen game for him and they wanted to restrict his pitch count.
“He was good and we obviously count on him to be one of our guys,” Sanfilippo said. “So it was good to see him throw the way he did.”
It would take six Spartan relievers to get through the game and the bullpen gave up 11 hits and 8 walks.
This included back to back home runs by the Gaels in the bottom of the third and a two-run homer in the top of the fourth.
SJSU did not capitalize on crucial opportunities that included a bases loaded situation in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Spartans didn’t bring in the runs to tie the game down 4-1.
Hunter Dorraugh’s eighth inning home run cut the Gaels’ lead to 8-3, but SJSU could capitalize once again leaving two more runners stranded.
“I just was less than pleased with our effort today,” Sanfilippo said. “[I’m] not really upset with the outcome, I’m upset with how we went about it a little bit.”
Despite the loss, Sanfilippo said he still thinks the Spartans can turn it around.
“We haven’t really gotten into a rhythm of being able to capitalize on the momentum of playing well,” Sanfilippo said. “I’d like for us to be better this weekend.”
The SJSU baseball team is scheduled to play a three-game series against Air Force, starting at 12:05 p.m. on Friday at Excite Ballpark in San Jose.