March 30, 2000
San Diego - San Diego State used some timely hitting along with good starting and closing pitching to defeat Brigham Young, 7-3, in the opener of their three-game Mountain West Conference series at Tony Gwynn Stadium on Thursday night.
With the win, the Aztecs (19-16 overall) moved to 7-3 in conference play one game behind league leaders BYU (8-2, 18-13 overall) and New Mexico (7-1) which was idle Thursday evening.
Freshman Chris Hartshorn turned in his second consecutive solid pitching effort, limiting the potent Cougar offense to three runs on six hits over 6 2/3 innings. Junior right-hander John Skinner was also impressive in late relief, picking up his first save of the year.
Skinner came on with the bases loaded and two out in the eighth, and SDSU clinging to a 5-3 lead, The transfer from Cal State Fullerton struck out BYU pinch hitter Nick Greene to end the inning, then breezed through the ninth to seal the win.
The Aztec offense, meanwhile, struck for two quick runs in the first inning on an RBI double by Sean Pierce and a two-out run-scoring single by Matt Ricardy. Pierce, Ricardy and senior Paul Lockhart finished with two hits apiece on the night, each with a single and double.
SDSU added single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. The run in the sixth was especially noteworthy as Sean Pierce walked, stole second, stole third, and came home on the front end of a double steal with Tyler Echelbarger swiping second on the play.
The Aztecs then effectively put the game away with a pair of insurance runs in the eighth inning. Lockhart's double and Echelbarger's single produced the RBIs.
Brigham Young and San Diego State continue their three-game set on Friday evening at Tony Gwynn Stadium with first pitch set for 6:00 p.m. The pitching matchup is expected to be BYU's Micah Mangrum (5-3, 4.06) facing SDSU's Jeremy Cook (2-3, 6.51).
San Diego State 7, Brigham Young 3BYU 010 000 200 - 5 7 1SDSU 200 111 02x - 7 11 0Stone, Noorda (6), Rex (8) and DaviesHartshorn, Dunwell (7), Ring (8), Skinner (8) and RogersW - Hartshorn (4-2)L - Stone (6-3)SV - Skinner (1)HR - BYU: Davies (4)Time - 3:08Att - 293