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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, May 21, 2009

WAC baseball: Top seed San Jose State beats Nevada


By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Kyle Bellows

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Kyle Bellows hit two homers to back the strong pitching of Ryan Shopshire and top-seeded San Jose State held off sixth-seeded Nevada, 5-3, today in the opener of the Napa Auto Parts Western Athletic Conference baseball tournament at Les Murakami Stadium.

Bellows went 3 for 4 with a double to help the Spartans (40-18) advance to tomorrow’s winners’ bracket game at 3 p.m.
The Wolf Pack (25-30) will play at 11 a.m. tomorrow in an elimination bracket game.
Shopshire (6-1), the WAC Pitcher of the Year, allowed three runs, seven hits and four walks with six strikeouts in 2/3 innings for the Spartans. Anthony Vega pitched 1 2/3 scoreless for his ninth save.
Derek Achelpohl (4-6) gave up five runs (four earned) in seven innings for the Wolf Pack.
The Spartans took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Kyle Bellows doubled with two outs and scored on Corey Valine’s ground single to left.
But the Wolf Pack tied it in the top of the second on Brock Stassi’s two-out, solo home run to left center.
San Jose State regained the lead in the second inning. Karson Klauer reached on shortstop Kevin Rodland’s fielding error and took second on Danny Stienstra’s sacrifice. Anthony Aguilera walked before Craig Hertler flied out to center, but Jason Martin’s single to left scored Klauer with the uneanred run to make it 2-1.
The Spartans increased their lead to 4-1 with back-to-back home runs from Kyle Bellows and Valine to start the third inning.
Bellows continued his assault on Nevada pitching with his second solo home run of the game in the fourth to make it 5-1. It was his seventh homer in his last 11 games.
Nevada pulled to 5-3 on a two-run single by Nick Melino off reliever Anthony Vega with two out after starter Shopshire allowed a double and two walks to load the bases before departing after 7· innings.