May 5, 2001
San Diego State used a balanced offensive attack and some good pitching to defeat Utah, 5-3, Saturday afternoon at Franklin Covey Field in Salt Lake City.
The win clinched at least the number-two seed at the upcoming Mountain West Conference Tournament for the Aztecs, who improved to 29-22 on the year and 17-10 in league play. The loss kept the Utes under the .500 mark at 23-25, and they fell to 12-15 in conference action.
Senior left-hander Ben Julianel got the start for SDSU and responded with seven strong innings. He allowed three unearned runs on five hits and struck out six to improve his record to 3-5. John Skinner pitched a perfect eighth inning and Royce Ring finished out the ninth to record his ninth save of the year.
San Diego State opened the scoring in the third on a one-out RBI single by Josh Hill that came after Darrell Bowles and Sean Pierce had opened the inning with a pair of walks. Jacob Minter followed with another single to score Pierce, and Brian Manfred used a sacrifice bunt to score Hill from third. It was the first of three sacrifice bunts on the day for Manfred who in the procsss set an SDSU record for sac bunts in a game.
The Aztecs added a run in the fourth on Pilar Amaya's two-out double down the left field line that scored Ben Leuthard from first base. It was Amaya's team-leading 45th RBI of the 2000 campaign.
The Utes battled back with three unearned runs over the sixth and seventh innings. However, the Aztecs added an insurance marker in the ninth when Carlo Cota's two-out single scored pinch runner Landon Burt from third. Burt was in the game for Josh Hill who had walked to open the inning.
Cota, Leuthard and Minter ended the game with two hits apiece for the Aztecs as they saddled Ute starter Ryan Bailey (7-4) with the loss.
In addition, second baseman Taber Lee extended his hitting streak to 13 games, matching the team best this season. Lee had a 13-game streak earlier this year as did Anthony Gwynn and Ben Leuthard. However, Lee's 10game streak of multiple-hit games came to an end as he went 1-for-5 on the day.
The Aztecs take a break from league play as they conclude their current eight-game road swing with a contest at Pepperdine on Tuesday (May 8) at 3:00p.m. They then conclude the regular season with a three-game series vs. conference foe Air Force beginning Friday (May 11) at 6:00 p.m. at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
San Diego State 5, Utah 3SDSU 031 000 001 - 5 9 4Utah 000 002 100 - 3 5 1Julianel, Skinner (8), Ring (9) and ManfredBailey, Maio (9) and SheltonW - Julianel (3-5)L - Bailey (7-4)S - Ring (9)HR - NoneTime - 2:16Att. - 171