March 29, 2002
Salt Lake City - Donald Hawes' three-run home in the seventh brought Utah from behind as the Utes defeated San Diego State, 5-3, Friday afternoon at Franklin Covey Field in Salt Lake City. The win improved Utah to 15-12 overall and 3-4 in Mountain West Conference play while the Aztecs fell to 21-10 and 4-2 in league action.
Starter Chris Dunwell (4-3) suffered his first lost after four straight wins as he received little in the way of offensive support. San Diego State left 12 runners on base over the first eight innings and had at least one man on in every inning except the ninth. Despite out-hitting the Utes, 10-8, SDSU could not drive in the runs when it had the chances. Utah, on the other hand, stranded only two runners on the day.
Utah's Jason Wylie evened his season record at 4-4, scattering 10 hits over his 7.2 innings of work before leaving with an injury in the eighth. Jared Snyder finished out the contest to record his second save of the year.
The Aztecs got off to a fast start in the game, taking a 2-0 lead in the first on RBI singles by Jon Stephens and Jake McLintock. A solo homer by Utah's Adam Castleton in the bottom of the inning cut SDSU's lead in half, but the Aztecs' restored the two-run margin with a run in the fourth on Chad Corona's RBI base hit.
The Utes scored a single run in the sixth to make it a 3-2 game before Hawes's heroics in the next inning. Mike Westfall led off the seventh with a single and was bunted over to second base. A single by Matt Ciaramella put runners on first and third, and Hawes then hit a ball over the left field fence to give Utah its first lead of the day.
San Diego State and Utah continue their three-game series Saturday afternoon (March 30) in Salt Lake City with game time set for 1:00 p.m. (MST). The game can be heard live on the Internet with the pre-game show starting 10 minutes before the scheduled start time.
Utah 5, San Diego State 3SDSU 200 100 000 - 3 10 0UTAH 100 001 30x - 5 8 1Dunwell, Fiedler (7), Harang (8), Hartshorn (9) and ManfredWylie, Snyder (8) and HawesW - Wylie (4-4)L - Dunwell (4-3)Sv - Snyder (2)HR - Utah: Castleton (1st-none on), Hawes (7th-two on)Att. - 292Time - 2:40