Noonan's Blast Propels Aztecs Past Cougars, 3-2

 

SAN DIEGO – San Diego State’s Nevan Noonan led off the seventh inning with the decisive home run on Thursday, lifting the Aztecs to a crucial 3-2 victory over Washington State in the opener of a Mountain West series at Tony Gwynn Stadium.

With the win, SDSU (17-37, 12-16 MW) climbs into a tie for fifth place in the conference standings with Air Force and San José State, while the Cougars (18-34, 11-17 MW) slip into the eighth position, as the top six teams advance to the MW Championship next week in Mesa, Arizona.

The Spartans (25-27, 12-16 MW) dropped a 3-2 decision to first-place Nevada (32-20, 18-10 MW) in San Jose on Thursday, while the Falcons (20-32, 12-16 MW) lost at UNLV (28-22, 14-14 MW) in 10 innings by a 4-3 count.

Back on The Mesa, the Aztecs found themselves locked in a pitcher’s duel for much of the contest, maintaining a slim 6-5 margin in hits.

In just his third start since April 12, Marko Sipila allowed two unearned runs on three hits and one walk with seven strikeouts in five innings before giving way to Peyton Rodgers to begin the sixth.

Rodgers finished the game with four scoreless frames, offsetting two hits with four strikeouts to collect the victory and even his record at 2-2 on the season.

Meanwhile, WSU starter Luke Meyers (5-4) matched Sipila with seven punchouts of his own through seven innings but was saddled with the loss after yielding three runs on four hits with a pair of walks.

The Cougars took the early lead without a hit when Max Hartman was struck by a pitch to lead off the contest and advanced two bases on a failed pickoff attempt before crossing the plate on a wild pitch.

However, Sipila regrouped at this juncture and promptly struck out the side without further damage.

The Aztecs finally broke through with a pair of runs in the third on Jonathan Smith’s RBI triple to the right-field corner, which brought home Finley Bates, who circled the bases after a leadoff single, while Noonan followed with a sacrifice fly to give the host school a 2-1 lead.

WSU pushed across another unearned run to tie the game in the fifth when Ryan Skjonsby raced home on Kyler Northrop’s single to left. Previously, Skjonsby drew a one-out walk following Griffin Myers’ base hit to right and advanced two bases on Luke Thiele’s fielder’s choice grounder to third and a throwing error.

The score remained deadlocked at 2-2 until the seventh when Noonan crushed a 3-2 pitch from Meyers over the fence in left-center for his team-leading ninth round-tripper of the year.

The Cougars put a runner aboard in both the eighth and ninth innings but were unable to capitalize.

Hartman lifted a two-out single to right-center in the eighth, but Rodgers induced a groundout to Gavin Roy to extinguish the threat.

Then in the ninth, Logan Johnstone led off with a base hit through the left side; however, Rodgers struck out  Will Cresswell, while pinch runner Cole Watterson was thrown out after an attempted steal of second. 

With the basepaths now cleared, Rodgers calmly induced a pop-out to Ollie Obenour to end the game, much to the delight of the Aztec faithful.

UP NEXT
San Diego State continues its weekend series against Washington State on Friday, May 16, at 6 p.m. PT.

Fans are encouraged to arrive early at Tony Gwynn Stadium, as traffic around campus parking structures is expected to be impacted by SDSU commencement ceremonies at Viejas Arena.