May 8, 2001
San Diego - Jared Pitney's solo home run in the bottom of the 10th lifted 14th-ranked Pepperdine (36-15) to a 5-4 victory over San Diego State (29-23) in a game played in Malibu Tuesday afternoon. The ending spoiled a spirited comeback by the Aztecs who had trailed 4-0 midway through the contest and tied the game in the ninth. It was SDSU's sixth extra-inning game of the season and its record in those contests is 2-4.
Pitney's shot over the left field fence came off reliever Royce Ring (5-2) who suffered just his second loss of the season after giving up his second long ball of the year. Pepperdine's Jacob Barrack (4-1) picked up the win even though he gave up SDSU's final two runs that allowed them to send the game to extra innings.
The Waves struck for two runs in both the first and fourth innings off Aztec starter Chris Hartshorn. However, the Aztecs came back with single runs in the fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth to tie the came.
In the ninth, Carlo Cota's two-out single up the middle scored pinch runner Erik Fiedler from third base to knot the score at four. Pepperdine got their leadoff runner on in the bottom of the ninth, but with one out Ring came on in relief of John Skinner to retire the side.
San Diego State was led offensively by shortstop Taber Lee who went 3-for-5 with a pair of runs batted in. With three singles, Lee extended his team-best hitting streak to 14 games and he has now recorded 11 multiple-hit games in his last 12 outings. Junior designated hitter Jacob Minter also contributed a pair of hits for the Aztec and scored a run.
SDSU concludes its regular season with a three-game conference series vs. Air Force this weekend. The first game of that set is set for Friday (May 11) at 6:00 p.m. at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
Pepperdine 5, San Diego State 4 (10 inn.)SDSU 000 010 111 0 - 4 10 1PEP 200 200 000 1 - 5 10 2Hartshorn, Jon Minter (6), Garber (7), Skinner (8), Ring (9) and ManfredRamirez, Barrack (8) and MillsW - Barrack (4-1)L - Ring (5-2)S - NoneHR - PEP: Pitney (9)Time - 3:02Att. - 127