Courtesy: San Jose State Athletics Aaron Loewenthal will take a season-long five-game hit streak into Saturday's game against Bethany. (Photo by Ron Fried)

San Jose, Calif. – Matt Winck earned his second win on the mound in as many nights as San Jose State University defeated the University of Portland, 6-2, at Municipal Stadium on Wednesday, March 15, to complete the sweep of a two-game non-conference baseball series.

The Spartans have now won six of the first seven games of a season-long 13-game homestand, and head into the weekend with a 15-9 record. Portland falls to 3-13.

Winck (2-0) picked up the win in the first game between the teams on Tuesday night, with the Spartans finishing on top, 5-4. He threw the eighth inning, with San Jose State scoring what proved to be the winning run in the bottom half. It was the 77th pitching appearance of Winck’s Spartan career, breaking the all-time school record.

15 GROUND-BALL OUTS

In a starting role on Wednesday night, Winck registered 15 ground-ball outs, including six in a row following a leadoff double by Pilot second baseman Sean Nicol in the first inning. Nicol came around and scored on the first two of those groundouts, but Winck got more and more dominant as the evening progressed, allowing just five singles from then on, through the eighth inning. The Spartan outfield did not register a putout until there was one out in the seventh inning, when junior rightfielder Aaron Loewenthal made consecutive catches to end the frame.

“If the ball’s not hit to me, I don’t mind,” said Loewenthal. “I’ll take that any time.”

“I was kind of surprised,” said Winck about the starting call. “It happened at the last second. I just wanted to give us a chance to win. I was getting outs, and by the time I knew it, it was the ninth inning already. I had good movement on my fastball, and was able to keep the hitters off-balance. The infield did a great job behind me. I have to tip my cap to them.”

DEWING EARNS FIRST CAREER SAVE

Winck finally ran into a little trouble in the ninth, which allowed senior left-handed staff ace Branden Dewing to come on in a rare relief appearance and get the final out for his first career save.

“Now I know what it feels like to be Steve Jones,” joked Dewing about the Spartan closer. “It was fun to get a chance to come out and just throw as hard as I can.”

Offensively, freshman shortstop John Shaffer, out of Archbishop Mitty High School, produced a pair of hits for the second straight night, finishing 2-for-4. He had RBI singles in the first and sixth innings, when the Spartans scored all six of their runs. Shaffer now has four RBI in his last three games and has hit safely in five consecutive contests.

Loewenthal went 1-for-2 with a walk, a hit-by-pitch, and two runs scored. He is hitting .400 (8-20) on the homestand, and like Shaffer, has a five-game hit streak going.

“I’m seeing the ball well the last couple of weeks,” he said. “My swing is coming together.”

SPARTANS SCORE EARLY

San Jose State produced all the scoring it would need, in the first inning, getting four runs to answer the Pilots’ first-inning tally. Following a leadoff single by second baseman David Pierson and a double by centerfielder Sam Hall, first baseman Brandon Fromm hit a one-out single to knot the game, increasing his RBI total to a team-best 19 on the year. Loewenthal and Shaffer then had RBI singles, with Fromm scoring on a wild pitch in between.

For the second straight night, the Portland starter was only able to go one-plus innings, as the Spartans chased right-hander Josh Roberts (1-3) early. Left-hander Ari Ronick replaced him and was very effective, retiring 12 of the 13 batters he faced, five of them on strikeouts. Following Ronick’s departure, SJSU tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the sixth on a Shaffer single and a fielder’s choice RBI grounder by third baseman Ben Agatep.

“It was good for us to get a big first inning with four runs,” remarked associate head coach Doug Thurman. “It took the pressure off of our hitters. (Matt) Winck did an outstanding job of pitching. He hit his spots. His fastball was moving and had a lot of life to it, which allowed him to get ground balls for the most part. He is an overwhelming groundball pitcher. You can tell when he’s on, because he’ll be getting the groundball outs. He was definitely on his game tonight. But Matt’s done that for four years. He’s been a real good spot-starter for us throughout his career.”

San Jose State continues its homestand on Saturday, March 18, hosting the Bruins of Bethany University (Calif.) at 1:00 p.m. at Blethen Field.

Portland (3-13) 100 000 001 -- 2 8 1
San Jose State (15-9) 400 002 00X -- 6 7 1

Roberts, Ronick (2), Jones (6), Sargent (6), Yoakum (8) and Crowder. Matt Winck, Branden Dewing (9) and Brody Massman. WP – Matt Winck (2-0). LP - Roberts (1-3). Save – Branden Dewing (1). 2B – Nicol (UP); Sam Hall (SJSU). 2 hits – Wiltshire (UP); John Shaffer (SJSU). 2 RBI – John Shaffer (SJSU). Attendance - 304.