After setting the tone in game one with a 10–2 win and clawing their way to a 6–5 win in game two, the Cougs stumbled at the finish line Sunday, unable to pick up the series sweep.

San Jose State got off to a hot start, putting up six runs in the first with redshirt sophomore JC Osorio–Agard crushing a grand slam into the trees in left center field.

The Cougs immediately began to chip away, scraping up two runs off RBIs from junior Logan Johnstone and senior Will Cresswell in the first. Freshman Kyler Northrop, junior Gavin Roy and Cresswell all drove in runs later in the game, but were unable to keep up with the Spartans who began to pull away in the seventh with a solo homer from Osorio–Agard, his second long ball of the night, making it 10–4.

SJSU drove in a run in the eighth and ninth innings to make the final score 12–6, moving both teams’ conference records to 6–6.

After using Griffin Smith, Nick Lewis and Luke Meyers in the previous two matchups, the Cougs leaned heavily on their bullpen in game three, going through six different pitchers. Junior Jake Tedesco got the start but only went 1/3 innings, giving up five runs, before he was relieved by freshman Nick Fazio. Sophomore Trevor Stowe helped to slow the bleeding, going 3 1/3 innings while allowing two runs.

“I thought [Stowe] did a great job,” head coach Nathan Choate said. “I thought he got a little tired, but I thought he did a pretty good job settling it down and competing.”

Sophomore Jake Robinson closed out the game going 2/3 innings in the ninth after redshirt sophomore Rylan Haider went a full inning with no earned runs allowed.

“Haider, who’s our closer, did a good job,” Choate said. “I got him out early just to keep him for the game tomorrow. He is going to close tomorrow, so he was right at that 15–16 pitch mark.”

Freshman Ollie Obenour exited the first matchup of the series after suffering an injury to his left hamstring. He is day–to–day and was absent for a majority of the SJSU series.

With the starting second baseman out, the Cougs ended up moving third baseman and redshirt junior Luke Thiele into second. Northrop got the start at the hot corner and had a productive series at the plate going 2–4 in game one, 2–5 in game two and 1–5 in game three.

“Hopefully we will have [Obenour] back by the weekend,” Choate said. “Kyler has done a great job at third base. [Thiele] is a shortstop naturally moving to second base and he is pretty athletic. All weekend long he played pretty well.”

With their Mountain West Conference record at an even .500, the Cougs will face off against the University of San Francisco at 12:05 p.m. on Monday. After the non–conference matchup, WSU will fly south to New Mexico for three more games of MWC play starting April 11.