Falcon Winning Streak Climbs to Eight In Weekend Sweep of SJSU

USAFA, Colo. – The Air Force Academy baseball team battled both their opponent and adverse weather conditions, and came out on top in a 5-3 series-sweeping win over San Jose State, Sunday afternoon, May 16, at Falcon Field.

The Falcons have now won eight-straight games, their longest winning streak since winning eight back in 2017. AF is also a season-best six games above .500 at 24-18 and four games above .500 in MW play at 16-12. The six games above .500 is the best record for the Falcons since getting to 10 games above that mark in 2016.

AF's offense tallied 10 hits on the afternoon, with nine of them singles. Three Falcons, freshman Paul Skenes, senior Cole Blatchford, and junior Alexander Pup, each had two-hit days, Skenes and Blatchford with RBIs. Senior Tommy Gillman had a game-leading two RBIs on a single as well.

On the mound, junior Stevan Fairburn Jr. earned his fifth win of the season after tossing a strong 5.2 innings to start, only allowing three runs while striking out three. Skenes came on for the ninth and earned his 10th save of the season with a 1-2-3 ninth that included a pair of Ks. The 10 saves is the second-most in a single season in program history, and his ERA is now down to 1.99 over 22.2 innings.

In between the pitchers of record, junior Zach Argo tossed 1.1 scoreless innings with a pair of Ks, while senior Ben Hauser pitched a clean eighth with a strikeout as well.

The first two innings went quick with only a couple of base runners overall. SJSU struck first in the third as the Spartans plated a pair to take an early 2-0 lead. AF answered right back with a four spot in the bottom of the third.

After back-to-back singles, Blatchford singled up the middle to plate the first run. Later in the frame with the bases loaded, junior Gabriel Garcia drew a walk to tie the game, and then the next batter, Gillman, singled down the line in right to plate a pair more and give AF the 4-2 lead into the fourth. The Spartans got a run back in the top half of the fourth with an unearned tally to keep it tight, 4-3.

Fairburn worked a scoreless fifth and he and Argo combined for a scoreless sixth to keep the one run lead. Argo then tossed a clean seventh to maintain the 4-3 tally into the stretch. The Falcons got some insurance in the bottom of the seventh on a sac fly from Skenes to make it 5-3 with two frames to play.

Following an hour and a half weather delay, Hauser came on to pitch and worked around a base runner in a scoreless top half of the eighth. Then Skenes came on for the ninth and went 1-2-3 with two Ks to lock down the 5-3 victory and the four-game series sweep.

The Falcons will continue play next Saturday-Sunday, May 22-23, as they welcome in San Diego State for a three-game series. A DH will be played on Saturday, and the finale will come on Sunday.

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