San Jose, Calif. - The San Jose State University baseball team defeated visiting Dartmouth College, 6-1, for its sixth straight to give head coach Sam Piraro career win No. 700 in his 22nd season in charge at his alma mater, at Municipal Stadium on Thursday night, March 19.

San Jose State moves its overall record to 15-3, while Dartmouth drops to 0-4 two games into its eight-game California trip. Piraro’s career mark is now 700-523-6.

“I think that was our best played game of the season, overall,” remarked Piraro, a three-time Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. “I told the team that. I thought that our level of contact was high. We hit some balls extremely hard. We hit well with two strikes. Our execution was outstanding. Defensively, we played the way we are capable, and obviously, (David) Berner gave us a great start, and Jack (Adams) came in throwing the ball very well. There isn’t an area of (tonight’s) game that I am disappointed in. I was very pleased. I hope that we can continue it.

“Well, it’s a number,” added Piraro about his 700th victory. “Basically, what it means is that I’ve been around a long time. It’s a longevity statistic more than anything else. I try not to get wrapped up into those things. It means I’ve been around a long time. I’m fortunate with that, but believe me, I don’t sit there and pat myself on the back for that. It’s a number because you’ve been around a long time, so we have to go on to bigger and better things, and see if we can get our team playing the way we want over the next couple of weeks, so when we go into conference, we hit conference at full speed.”

The Spartans got on the board in the second inning thanks to senior rightfielder Jacob Bruns’ first major college home run, a deep, solo shot with one out that stayed just fair down the right field line. San Jose State then produced a two-out, four-run rally in the third to give senior left-hander David Berner all the offensive support he needed on the mound.

Senior third baseman Tyler Heil started things by reaching on an infield error with one out. With two gone following a first-pitch infield lineout by sophomore centerfielder Jason Martin, junior shortstop Kyle Bellows singled through the left side on the next pitch, moving Heil to third. The Spartans then successfully executed a double steal, with Heil sliding home safely for a 2-0 edge. Three straight run-scoring doubles ensued, with sophomore first baseman Danny Stienstra and freshman designated hitter Anthony Bona both poking two-baggers fair inside the left field line, ahead of a hard shot to the base of the wall in right by Bruns.

Berner (4-0), meanwhile, needed minimal help to earn his fourth winning decision already to eclipse his total from 2008 in his first season of major college baseball after a distinguished two-year career at West Valley College. He took his team into the eighth inning for a fifth straight start to begin the current campaign. The Santa Clara native allowed just a lone run in the seventh on four singles and a walk, while striking out seven. He retired the Big Green in order in the first, third and sixth, with two strikeouts in the first, and used a pair of ground-ball double plays in back-to-back frames to wipe out leadoff singles in both the fourth and fifth.

In the fourth, it was a rare 3-6-3 double play that Stienstra started off the bat of rightfielder Nick Santomauro, with Bellows firing back to the 2008 Freshman All-American to complete the play. A Berner strikeout ended the inning. In the fifth, it was Berner helping himself. After a strikeout, he fielded shortstop Joe Sclafani’s comebacker and threw to Bellows to start the twin killing.

Senior right-hander Jack Adams, a San Jose native out of Leigh High School, retired all six batters he faced, one on strikes, in another stellar effort in late relief of Berner.

Bellows, himself a San Jose native out of Santa Teresa High School, finished 2-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch, two runs scored and a single-game career-high three stolen bases. Bruns wound up 3-for-4 with the double, home run, run scored and two RBI. Bona added a second two-out, RBI double, almost to the exact same spot as the first, after a one-out Bellows single and steal, to cap the Spartan scoring in the fifth, and was 2-for-4 on the night with a run and two RBI.

Junior right-hander Ben Murray (0-1) started in his first appearance of 2009 for the Big Green, and took the loss. Leftfielder Brett Gardner drove in the only Dartmouth run on a fielder’s choice grounder with one out and the bases loaded to plate fellow junior Santomauro in Berner’s final inning, the seventh. With runners at the corners, Berner left the game on the high of his seventh punchout of the evening on a called strike on the inside corner.

The game was the Spartans’ quickest by length of time on the year, taking just one hour and 52 minutes. The fastest was previously another Berner start, his complete-game shutout over Saint Joseph’s in the season opener on Friday, February 20. That one took an hour and 54 minutes.

In addition to the solid pitching and timely hitting, the Spartans played another clean defensive game, finishing a contest without an error for the ninth time this year out of 18 tries. Stienstra was particularly impressive yet again, corralling a high Heil throw and making the tag on the sliding Dartmouth base-runner in the third, before making a great pick-up of a short-hopped throw in the sixth.

San Jose State continues a six-game homestand spanning six days this week by facing Dartmouth once more on Friday night, March 20. First pitch is set for 6:00 p.m. at Municipal Stadium, with junior Spartan left-hander Max Peterson (3-0, 3.12 ERA) expected to be opposed by freshman right-hander Cole Sulser (0-0, 9.00 ERA) for Dartmouth.

“Dartmouth is a very good team,” concluded Piraro. “They are very well-coached, and they are athletic. We are going to have our hands full tomorrow night. This is early in the season for them, but it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see that they do some things extremely well.”

San Jose State 6, Dartmouth 1

Dartmouth (0-4) 000 000 100 - 1 4 3
San Jose State (15-3) 014 010 00X - 6 9 0

Murray, Young (7), Langford (8) and Parks, Evans (8). Berner, Adams (8) and Aguilera. WP - Berner (4-0). LP - Murray (0-1). Save - None. 2B - Stienstsra, Bona 2, Bruns (SJSU). HR - Bruns (1) (SJSU). 3 hits - Bruns (SJSU). 2 hits - Bellows, Bona (SJSU). 2 RBI - Bona, Bruns (SJSU). Attendance - 472.