San Jose State catcher Johnny Mendoza had the game-tying RBI and game-winning run in the 2-1 comeback victory over UNLV on March 15, 2019 at San Jose Municipal Stadium.

Below is a follow-up to a story originally published on Saturday.

Strengthening a hold on first place, San Jose State Spartans baseball completed a three-game Mountain West Conference series sweep over the visiting UNLV Rebels, with a 2-1 win on Friday, 6-5 win on Saturday, and 7-6 win on Sunday, all at San Jose Municipal Stadium. This was San Jose State's first conference series sweep of the season.

On Saturday, San Jose State built up a 6-0 lead from the fourth through sixth innings and held off a late UNLV rally that included a ninth inning homer. UNLV appeared to turn the tables on Sunday by taking a 6-1 lead in the second inning, but San Jose State scored the final six runs and rallied for a 7-6 win to complete the sweep. On the mound for those games, San Jose State closer Fineas del Bonta-Smith got his fourth and fifth saves of the season, Tevin Cadola got the Saturday win upping his record to 3-0, and Wesley Clawson got his first win of the season on Sunday, moving up to 1-1.

This series sweep improves San Jose State's record to 12-7 (6-3 MW), for the best nine-game conference start since joining the MW in 2014 and best 19-game overall start since the 14-5 start in 2011. After the MW coaches' preseason poll picked San Jose State seventh and last, San Jose State now sits alone on first place in the conference standings, ahead of Air Force (3-2), whose entire home series against Fresno State this weekend was postponed due to snow in Colorado Springs. Tied for third are Nevada and New Mexico both at 3-3 with San Diego State (2-2). Nevada took two out of three games against New Mexico in Reno. San Diego State swept a non-conference home series against Seattle. UNLV drops to 2-4 and sixth after being swept by San Jose State. Fresno State is seventh and last at 1-2.

San Jose State will take a road trip across Northern and Central California this week, starting with a non-conference midweek game at Sacramento State on Tuesday night and resuming conference play at longtime in-state rival Fresno State in a three-game series beginning Friday. At 11-7, Sacramento State comes off a 35-25 season and is on an eight-game win streak. Fresno State is 8-5 overall, including a 1-2 record in MW games, all against UNLV at home.

Below is the original recap of Friday's San Jose State baseball game.

For eight innings, San Jose State was making hits with nothing to show for them. That all changed in the ninth, when the San Jose State Spartans scored twice to rally for a 2-1 series opening win over the visiting UNLV Rebels on a clear, breezy Friday night at San Jose Municipal Stadium.

Andrew Mitchel, the reigning Mountain West co-Pitcher of the Year, held UNLV to two hits and struck out six in eight innings, with the only run coming from a sacrifice fly. Retiring all three batters faced in the ninth, closer Fineas del Bonta-Smith (2-1) got the win. For UNLV, Cameron Jabara (1-1) took the loss, striking out four and giving up 10 hits.

Watch video of the ninth-inning rally below. Video courtesy Mountain West Network on Stadium.

Mitchel struggled early by giving up hits and walks. Following a walk and two singles, UNLV took a 1-0 lead in the third off a one-out, bases-loaded sacrifice fly to left field by Jack-Thomas Wold. From the fourth to eighth innings, Mitchel and the defense gave up no hits.

“I don’t that that he felt that he had his ‘A’ stuff in the beginning of the game, but he settled into it,” said San Jose State head coach Brad Sanfilippo about Mitchel.

Although San Jose State had seven hits in the first eight innings, they merely stranded runners on base, even as far as third. In the seventh with one out, James Shimashita circled from first to third after Jabara threw a pickoff attempt wide, but two groundouts ended the inning.

“We just hadn’t been able to move runners very well,” commented Sanfilippo.

In the eighth with one out, Connor Konishi hit a slow grounder to Jabara and appeared to beat him to first base, but the first base official ruled him out and sparked boos from the crowd. The eighth ended with three up and three down.

Kellen Strahm sparked the ninth inning rally with a leadoff single to left field. On the next at-bat, Blake Berry sent a double past the reach of the left and center fielders, followed by a Johnny Mendoza single that dropped in front of the center fielder and scored Strahm for the tie.

“The energy was just there the whole time,” remarked Berry.

Berry, a transfer from Santa Rosa Junior College, has established himself as the starting designated hitter. Going three-for-four in this game, Berry has a .323 batting average on the season.

“Going from a JC and working hard and getting here…it’s fun,” said Berry.

With one out and freshman pinch hitter Nik Trapani at bat, Jabara’s pitch bounced off the dirt and the catcher’s glove to the backstop. That wild pitch allowed Mendoza to dash home from third and score the game winner.

“As soon as it went up, I saw [the catcher] was going to miss it…and it went all the way into the net,” explained Mendoza.

Rankings in the latest Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) report indicate that Friday had the best win for San Jose State in terms of opponent quality. UNLV is ranked at no. 51, with two wins over opponents ranked in the top 20, no. 6 Stanford and no. 14 UC Santa Barbara. Within conference play, UNLV defeated no. 71 Fresno State two out of three times. Earlier this week, UNLV swept Pac-12 opponent Washington State with scores of 17-3 on Tuesday and 12-7 on Wednesday.

San Jose State is now 10-7 (4-3 MW), while UNLV drops to 11-8 (2-2 MW). This year marks the best seven-game conference start for San Jose State since joining the MW in 2014. In terms of past 17-game overall starts, the 2017 and 2018 teams had 8-9 starts, and the last time San Jose State had a winning record in the first 17 was in 2012 at 9-8.

The series continues at Municipal Stadium on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 12 p.m.