April 13, 2001
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State left-hander Marcos Mendoza pitched his second straight complete game and struck out a career-high 12 UNLV batters in leading the Aztecs to a thrilling 2-1 win over the Rebels on Friday night at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
Mendoza improved to 4-4 on the year by holding UNLV (15-22 overall, 6-10 Mountain West) to only five hits and one unearned run. In his two appearances against the Rebels this year, the Grossmont HS product has fanned 23 batters in 15 1/3 innings and walked only five.
The win kept SDSU (22-15 overall, 11-5 MWC) in a tie with BYU atop the Mountain West Conference standings, as the Cougars beat New Mexico, 7-5 earlier in the evening.
With the score tied at one and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Aztec right fielder Sean Pierce found himself up with shortstop Taber Lee on second base. Pierce hit a slow roller to Rebel second baseman Garrett Shitanishi, whose throw to first was too late to catch Pierce, whose headfirst slide helped him beat the throw.
With SDSU head coach Jim Dietz waving Lee around third on the play, he came around to score easily with the game-winning run. After going hitless in his first three at-bats, Pierce's single extended his hitting streak to nine games.
UNLV left-hander Ryan Olson suffered the loss after going 8 2/3 innings and allowing 10 SDSU hits.
Friday's contest was the Aztecs' 15th one-run game of the year and marked the 14th time that SDSU has come from behind to win a game. In addition, the game was the 10th time the Aztecs won a game in their final at-bat and was SDSU's seventh walk-off victory of the year.
The Rebels and Aztecs will meet for game two of the series at 6 p.m. tomorrow at Tony Gwynn Stadium.