In a tightly contested, back-and-forth game, the San José State baseball team batted away in a thrilling 8-7 win over Utah Valley in its home opener at Excite Ballpark on Thursday.
With the game tied 7-7 at the bottom of the eighth inning, senior outfielder Jeriah Lewis hit a solo home run from right-center field which became the go-ahead winning score.
“I tried to put the ball in play and I ended up getting a good swing on it and somehow it went over the fence,” Lewis said.
Brad Sanfilippo, the Spartans baseball head coach, said he was proud of Lewis for having his moment in the game.
“He’s one of our leaders, one of our better players and came through in the moment that we needed him to so I’m obviously very happy for him,” Sanfilippo said.
Lewis played a crucial role in the Spartans' batting as he ended the game with two runs, two hits and an RBI during the game.
Senior infielder Zach Chamizo praised the team for giving the Wolverines a strong fight throughout the game.
“It really just speaks to who we are as a team, we're a bunch of greedy guys and we have a lot of fight in us,” Chamizo said.
Besides Lewis, other batters contributed to the hard-fought win, such as the top hitters Chamizo and junior infielder Rocco Caballero.
Chamizo scored a run while going 2 for 3 and added two RBIs while Caballero went 2 for 4 at bat, adding two runs and an RBI.
“It was a team game that we won today,” Chamizo said. “Everyone did their part, pitchers threw well, every hitter contributed somehow, the bench was great and everyone contributed to that.”
The first three innings featured junior pitcher Cade Cushing for the Spartans and Wolverines freshman pitcher Landon Zaborowski preventing runs until sophomore infielder Dominic Longo II scored a run to put Utah Valley on the board first in the top of the third inning.
The Spartans and Wolverines then dueled in the next two innings as both teams got their offenses going, including runs from SJSU’s Chamizo and senior infielder Antonio Nanez.
Senior outfielder Alex Fernandes hit the lone RBI triple that led to a run for Nanez, adding a spark for the Spartan offense.
“He showed up in some big moments and the three games that he’s played, he’s made a really big impact,” Sanfilippo said.
Junior outfielder Luke Iverson then stepped up for the Wolverines by scoring a run, including hitting a single that led to a Longo II run.
Later, the sixth inning marked a surge for the Spartans, notching four runs and two hits and taking a commanding 7-3 lead.
The Wolverines then clawed back to put up four runs to tie the game 7-7 in the seventh inning.
“I’m really impressed right now on how we’ve completed so far,” Sanfilippo said. “It’s a hard game to win tonight when you have a 7-3 lead and they (Wolverines) come back and tie it.”
Notably, the Spartans made pitching changes throughout the innings during the game.
Sanfilippo said he knew the game was going to be a bullpen game, but was not keen on moving starters.
“We were hoping to get two or three from Cushing and then two or three from (Luca) Staiano, and then things went sideways a little bit,” Sanfilippo said. “The one thing when you do have a bullpen game, you have to have some flexibility just because sometimes when you throw that many arms in a game, it's not exactly gonna go perfectly planned.”
The SJSU baseball team (6-1) went under renovation leading into the season, adding 26 commitments from college and high schools, according to a Feb. 18 KSJS article.
Sanfilippo said he is still figuring out the personality of the offense, how they score runs and viewed this game as an opportunity to see what each new player can do.
“It’s learning for the coaching staff,” Sanfilippo said. “There’s guys that we put into situations before that we’ve never seen in those situations before today. We gave the ball to freshmen in the inning where things were getting a little squirrely and we got a couple outs.”
San José State went on to sweep the four-game series against the Wolverines (2-6), earning a hot 6-1 start of the season and its first four-game sweep since May 2009, according to an SJSU athletics webpage.
The Spartans are currently on a six-game win streak, marking their longest win streak since the first six games of the 2011 season, according to the same SJSU athletics webpage.
SJSU is looking to extend its streak as the team hosts Santa Clara this afternoon at 3:05 p.m. at Excite Ballpark.
