San Jose State stole a game from the Gauchos on Friday, scoring three runs in the ninth inning to top UCSB 9-8 on Friday afternoon at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
The loss was the fourth in five games for Santa Barbara, now 11-10 overall. San Jose State won for the fourth time in five games and is 18-7.
Senior Greg Davis, who entered the game 3-0 with three saves and a 2.08 ERA, allowed a one-out single and a walk before Anthony Bona delivered a double down the left-field line to tie the game, 8-8. Bona later scored on Kerry Jenkins’ triple that just got past a diving Ben Edelstein in center field.
UCSB used eight pitchers on the day and the bullpen-by-committee could not support an offense that scored eight runs on 11 hits. The Gaucho pitchers allowed 18 hits to the Spartans.
Starter Jesse Meaux went 5.1 innings allowing just two earned runs, but he did allow 10 hits while the relief corps walked six batters and eight base hits.
Ryan Palermo led the Gaucho offense with three hits as Brandon Trinkwon, Sean Williams and Mark Haddow all had multiple hits on the day.
In the first inning the Gauchos strung together five consecutive hits to take a 3-1 lead as Haddow, Trevor Whyte and Palermo all had RBIs.
After SJSU tied the game with two runs in the second inning, the teams played to a stalemate until Santa Barbara struck for four runs in the fifth inning. Sean Williams followed Trinkwon’s double with one of his own and after Haddow’s infield single, Trevor Whyte hit a sac fly to make it 5-3. Palermo’s double scored Haddow and Joe Wallace’s double brought in Palermo for a 7-3 lead.
But the Spartans rallied vs. the Gauchos’ ’pen. They scored twice in the seventh and once in the eighth as the Gauchos scored a run in the seventh to make it 8-6.
Haddow produced the Gauchos’ seventh inning run on his own as he walked, stole second, moved to third on a throwing error by Bona and scored on Bona’s passed ball.
Then, with Davis ready to close it out, the Spartans snatched the victory from the Gauchos’ grasp.
UCSB continues its series vs. San Jose State with 1 p.m. games on Saturday and Sunday.
San Jose St. 9
UCSB 8
San Jose State…… 120 000 213 – 9 18 1
UC Santa Barbara…. 300 040 100 – 8 11 1
Mcfarland,Guzman(5),Jones (9), Whalen
Win – Guzman (3-1). Loss – Davis, G (3-1). Save – Jones (4).
