San Jose, Calif. - The San Jose State University baseball program's annual intrasquad event, the Spartan World Series, came to a close at Blethen Field on South Campus on Tuesday afternoon, November 24, with the victorious Blue taking a 5-2 decision over the Gold.

The Spartan Blue, drafted and directed by coach Brian Yocke and fourth-year senior team captain Karson Klauer, had already clinched the best-of-seven series for a second year in a row with the sweep of a doubleheader at San Jose Municipal Stadium last Sunday, November 22. With today's result, they have posted a 5-2 series triumph in successive seasons. The Gold took a 2-0 lead in this year's set before the Blue reeled off five straight victories.

On Tuesday, the Blue rode the bat and arm, respectively, of junior teammates Tommy Gale and Eric LeBaron. Gale went 3-for-4 on the afternoon and drove in two of his team's five runs. His triple to the gap in right center with one out in the bottom of the third inning drove in sophomore shortstop Michael Reiling and put the Blue on the board, tying the contest at 1-1. It was Gale's third triple of the series, with all three coming over the final four games. The native of Pleasanton, Calif., finished with a series-best .462 (12-for-26) average offensively, slugging .731 with six RBI, and made 13 clean putouts in center field without a miscue.

LeBaron (1-0), a right-hander, made his second start of the series and threw five effective innings, allowing just a single run on three hits and four walks, while striking out a pair.

Two freshmen split the remainder of the game in relief of LeBaron for the Blue. Left-hander David Wayne Russo tossed two shutout frames with one single and one walk against him, and a strikeout. Right-hander Patrick Hennessey notched his first save of the series, allowing one run on four hits while registering the final six outs.

Junior right-hander Luke Mazzanti (0-1) was solid in a losing start, his first of the series, for the Gold. He went seven complete innings, giving up three runs, two of them earned, on seven hits without a walk. Mazzanti fanned two. Patrick's older brother, Andy Hennessey, and junior left-hander John Austin, combined on the final three outs for the Gold on the mound.

The Gold, designated visitors for Game 7, struck first with a lone run in their half of the third. Redshirt junior Breyon Canez, playing right field for the first time in the series after appearing at first base over the initial six contests, laced a double into the right field corner to lead things off, advanced to third on a right-sided groundout by junior teammate Danny Stienstra, and scored as senior third baseman Corey Valine lifted a fly ball to center on a 1-2 pitch for the sacrifice.

After the Blue knotted the score in the bottom half, they tallied what proved to be the winning run in the fifth. Freshman first baseman Tim Quiery singled up the middle to start the frame, advanced to second on a first-pitch bunt by junior catcher Bryson Rahier, to third on a Reiling flyout, and sped home on a first-pitch, two-out single up the middle by Gale.

It became a 3-1 game in the seventh as junior designated hitter Barney Evans smacked the first pitch he saw for a leadoff double off the wall in straightaway center, was expertly bunted over two pitches later by junior rightfielder Kolton Klauer, Karson's younger brother, and on Mazzanti's fourth offering of the inning, scored on Quiery's single through the right side.

The Gold got that run back right away, and almost got more if not for a tremendous defensive play by the elder Klauer. Stienstra led off the eighth with a double to the wall in left center. Back-to-back singles by Valine and junior second baseman Nick Borg made it 3-2. A fielder's choice groundout by freshman shortstop Zack Jones left runners at the corners with just one away. Klauer then picked up freshman catcher Chris Carrillo's looping liner off the short hop right in front of him, was able to get up just in time to tag Jones as he tried to slip by, and completed the inning-ending double play with his throw to Quiery at first, keeping the one-run lead intact.

The Blue then wasted little time in icing the contest with two final scores in the home eighth. One-out singles on consecutive pitches by Gale and Klauer, the latter bounced perfectly through the hole on the right side with Gale on the move, put runners at the corners. Junior leftfielder Kerry Jenkins worked the count full and drew a walk to load the bases. Hennessey then made a nice play to momentarily keep it a one-run game, as he charged off the mound to pounce on a comebacker off third baseman Tyler Christian's bat and fired home to Carrillo for the force on Gale. Evans took Austin's first offering to left center, however, for a two-run single.

In addition to Gale's offensive heroics, Klauer and Evans each went 2-for-4 with a run scored. Evans knocked in two. Klauer handled all 11 of his defensive chances cleanly at second, and did not make an error over 47 chances in the series. Quiery was 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI.

Stienstra, back at his familiar first base position from second base, wound up 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored. He led all players with seven RBI in the series. Valine, the Spartan Gold's team captain and leading hitter for the set at .407 (11-for-27), was 2-for-2 in the game with a walk, sacrifice fly and RBI.

Other highlights on the afternoon included Rahier throwing to Klauer once in each of the first two frames to catch runners attempting to steal second. Rahier's counterpart, Carrillo, also threw twice to his second baseman, Borg, to gun down would-be base-stealers, to end the fifth, and in the sixth. Carrillo threw out eight of 12 runners in the series on steal attempts.

LeBaron squirmed out of a bases-loaded jam in the first by getting Jones to ground out to second. The Gold had filled the bags with two outs on an infield Stienstra single, a four-pitch walk to Valine and a catcher's interference call with Borg at the plate. The game ended on an around-the-horn double play started by Christian at third, off the bat of fellow freshman Nick Schulz, following a one-out single up the middle by sophomore designated hitter Anthony Bona. Despite an 0-for-3 day, Jenkins made solid contact for the Blue in each of his first three plate appearances prior to the walk, belting sharp fly balls to left, right and center, respectively.

The final game of the Spartan World Series signals the end of the 2009 fall season for San Jose State, two days ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

"I look at the entire fall as a total body of work, meaning we played 20 games, and we had an opportunity to experience a lot of different things," remarked head coach Sam Piraro to begin his post-game, post-series and post-fall assessment. "We had situations come up during the course of 20 games, and especially in this World Series that are learning situations, whether it's hitting with guys in scoring position, or learning how to read the outfielders when you're on base.

"I think the biggest improvement we made over this series, is our pitching did a better job. They competed better than they did prior to the series. I would say the highlight was our pitching. Esteban Guzman had two outstanding starts, Blake McFarland was very competitive, and David Luna came out of the bullpen and threw a real good five innings for us (in Game 6). We had a couple guys pitch out of the bullpen that did a good job, like (Craig) Broussard. My point is that I thought our pitching did a better job. That was good for us to see.

"There are a lot of things we put in. Our guys understand what our culture is. That's big, understanding what's acceptable, what's not, what we expect from our players. We were very fortunate the weather helped us, being able to get all those innings in. We're going to build on that. We'll evaluate it, meet next week, talk about the things we did well, the things we need improvement on, and then we'll go from there."

Piraro's Spartans are slated to open official spring practice during the last weekend of January, or the first week of February. The annual Alumni Game is scheduled for Saturday, February 13, at Municipal Stadium. San Jose State begins defense of its Western Athletic Conference crown on Friday, February 19, in Moraga, Calif., against the Gaels of Saint Mary's College. The Spartans' 2010 home opener is set for a 1:00 p.m. first pitch the following afternoon at Muni.

Game 7: Spartan Blue 5, Spartan Gold 2

Spartan Gold (2-5) 001 000 010 - 2 8 1
Spartan Blue (5-2) 001 010 12X - 5 10 1

Mazzanti, A. Hennessey (8), Austin (8) and Carrillo. LeBaron, Russo (6), P. Hennessey (8) and Rahier. WP - LeBaron (1-0). LP - Mazzanti (0-1). Save - P. Hennessey (1). 2B - Schulz, Canez, Stienstra (Gold); Evans (Blue). 3B - Gale (Blue). 3 hits - Gale (Blue). 2 hits - Stienstra, Valine (Gold); Ka. Klauer, Evans, Quiery (Blue). 2 RBI - Gale, Evans (Blue). Attendance - 75.

2009 Spartan World Series
(Blue wins series, 5-2)
Game 1: Gold 2, Blue 0
Game 2: Gold 15, Blue 1
Game 3: Blue 3, Gold 2 (11)
Game 4: Blue 14, Gold 2
Game 5: Blue 3, Gold 0 (7)
Game 6: Blue 6, Gold 3 (7)
Game 7: Blue 5, Gold 2