Jan. 14, 2002
Gold Coast, Australia - Three Queensland pitchers combined to shut down the Aztec offense on three hits as the Rams recorded their first win over San Diego State, 4-1, at the Palm Meadows baseball complex Monday evening. The loss was first in four games for SDSU on its preseason exhibition tour down under.
The Aztecs got off to a good start once again, scoring once in the top of the first on a double by Anthony Gwynn followed by an RBI double by third baseman Garrett Cook. However, from that point on, the bats were silent as Queensland pitching retired 25 of the next 27 batters.
Ram starter John Veitch, a 24-year-old right-hander, struck out seven in his five innings of work, retiring the final 13 Aztecs he faced. The threesome of Veitch, Chris Oxspring and Ichiro Shibata struck out 12 Aztecs and allowed just one walk on the night.
Aztec starter Chris Hartshorn had little trouble through the first three innings, but ran into trouble in the fourth when Queensland struck three times. The Rams put together two singles and a double along with three walks, all with two outs, to take their first lead of the series. They added a solo run in the fifth off reliever Daryl Harang on a pair of walks, a field's choice and a sacrifice fly.
San Diego State's only other hit of the night came in the sixth, an infield single by second baseman Carlo Cota. SDSU also got a base runner to second in the eighth when Josh Allen walked and stole second, but the Aztecs lacked a key hit in both situations. Shibata struck out the side in the ninth to close out the game and pick up the save.
Game five of SDSU's 10-game schedule is slated for Tuesday evening when the team will travel an hour down the road to face Queensland at the Windsor Baseball Club in Brisbane at 7:00 p.m. The intent broadcast of that contest begins at 1:00 a.m. Tuesday morning in San Diego.
Queensland 4, San Diego State 1SDS 100 000 000 - 1 3 1QLD 000 310 00x - 4 6 0Hartshorn, Harang (4) and Perdue, Allen (4)Veitch, Oxspring (6), Shibata (9) and EvansW - VeitchL - HartshornSv - ShibataHR: NoneAtt. - 72