This was an opportunity, for sophomore Aaron Gillis and freshman Jake Shull and everyone else who followed them out of the Fresno State bullpen.

San Jose State came to Beiden Field on Tuesday with a 2-9 record, 0-8 on the road, mired in a nine-game losing streak and with an offense hitting .261 and producing four runs per game, ninth in the 10-team Western Athletic Conference.

The Spartans, seemingly, were set up as the perfect stooge; a chance for the Bulldogs to throw strikes, get some things worked out in a bullpen with a 14.58 ERA.

It didn't work out that way, as eight pitchers continually worked their way into trouble in a 10-3 loss.

"Every inning, I think, that they scored there was a walk or a walk and a hit batter or an error," coach Mike Batesole said. "You just can't give a Division I team those kind of chances. We're not good enough offensively to do that. It was sloppy on the mound, it was sloppy defensively and it was poor offensively.

"Up to now I think we have 23 hit batters and 43 walks and 20 errors. I think we've got 86 free runners and we've struck out 71. The bottom line is we're giving way too many free base runners to the other team. The numbers add up to 3-8. You want to be 3-8, we've got a model for you."

Gillis, with a 9.64 ERA coming in, started. He gave up an unearned run in the first after he hit San Jose State leadoff hitter Andre Mercurio with his second pitch and walked the next batter on five pitches. In the second, he gave up an infield single to Matt Carroll, hit the next batter to put runners at first and second and that was it for him.

Shull, with a 4.50 ERA, allowed both runners to score. After a sacrifice, Mercurio drove them in with a double to right-center that barely eluded a diving Brody Russell. Shull then gave up a run of his own in the third after a leadoff single by Jacob Valdez, who scored on a base hit by Carroll.

Tyler Stirewalt, with a 10.80 ERA, was next. He pitched a scoreless fourth, but started the fifth by walking the leadoff hitter and plunking two to load the bases. He limited the damage with a double-play grounder, but the Spartans had six runs, more than in any of their past six games.

Left-hander Tyler Linehan, with a 12.15 ERA, came on to get the Bulldogs out of the fifth, retiring the left-handed hitting Ricky Acosta. But he couldn't build on that, giving up two in the sixth. With runners at first and second and two outs, Linehan was called for a balk on a 2-2 pitch to the left-handed hitting Valdez, who then hit a two-run single.

Even when things picked up a bit, regression soon followed. Freshman left-hander Connor Chase retired two left-handers in the seventh. But he started the eighth by giving up a triple and walking the left-handed hitting Tim Quiery. On came Luke Wiechec, who saw two runs score on a walk and a passed ball.

The Bulldogs have only a four-game series at Cal that starts Thursday before opening their first Mountain West season.

"We've got to find a rhythm in the bullpen, we've got to find a rhythm offensively and we haven't done that yet," Batesole said.