March 26, 2000
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State baseball team completed a three-game sweep of Mountain West Conference foe Air Force with a 12-1 beating of the Falcons on Sunday at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
The Aztecs (18-15 overall, 6-3 MWC) continued their recent trend of scoring early, as a first inning single from first baseman Tyler Echelbarger drove in center fielder Billy Montgomery to give SDSU a 1-0 lead. Neither team was able to muster much offense for the next few innings, but the Aztecs exploded in the bottom of the sixth, scoring five runs. SDSU hung another five runs on the board in the seventh to put the game away.
Aztec catcher Brandon Rogers blasted his sixth home run of the season over the left field fence in the sixth inning and third baseman Edgar Gonzalez went three-for-five with a triple and two RBI, but it was freshman hurler Rory Shortell who stole the show.
Shortell, who was making his first collegiate start after spending much of the season as SDSU's closer, pitched seven innings of scoreless ball, limiting Air Force (14-15 overall, 1-8 MWC) to five hits and striking out six. Shortell did most of his work while clinging to a one-run lead, only pitching one inning with a cushion before being replaced by left hander Royce Ring.
The Aztecs have won four straight and five of their last seven. The Falcons have dropped four straight and eight of their last nine.
SDSU returns to action at 5 p.m. this Tuesday when it hosts USC at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
San Diego State 12, Air Force 1AFA 000 000 010 - 1 7 2SDSU 100 005 51x - 12 13 1Win- Rory Shortell (3-2)Loss- Michael Tufte (3-5)Save- None2B-Air Force (Mike Thiessen), SDSU (Paul Lockhart, Tyler Echelbarger, Taber Lee)3B- SDSU (Edgar Gonzalez)HR- SDSU (Brandon Rogers)
Attendance- 611