April 13, 2002
San Diego State - Brain Manfred's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth inning brought home pinch runner David Hall with the winning run as San Diego State defeated UNLV, 5-4, Saturday evening at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The victory extended the Aztecs' current win streak to six games and improved the Aztecs to 28-12 overall and 10-3 in the Mountain West Conference.
After the Rebels (17-20, 5-9 MWC) opened the scoring with a run in the second, the Aztecs answered back with a pair in the bottom of the inning. Jake McLintock reached on an error and was at second base with two outs when Garrett Cook lashed a double down the left field line to tie the score. Manfred then singled home Cook to give SDSU a 2-1 lead.
San Diego State increased its lead to 4-1 with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Carlo Cota's RBI double brought home Taber Lee in the fifth. Manfred picked up his second RBI of the game when he singled home Chad Corona in the next inning.
Junior Rory Shortell went seven innings, allowing one run on four hits before begin relieved by Chris Hartshorn to start the eighth. Just when it seemed the Aztecs had the game in hand, UNLV rallied for three runs to even the score.
RBI singles in the eighth by David Trujillo and Eric Nielsen brought the Rebels to within 4-3 when reliever Royce Ring was called upon with runners on first and second and two out. Garett Shitanishi proceeded to drive an RBI single to right to tie the score at 4-4. It was the first time this season that Ring was not able to close out a save situation.
San Diego State's eighth inning began with a leadoff walk to Chad Corona followed by a fielder's choice off the bat of Ryan Wilson that cut down Corona at second. Hall pinch ran for Wilson and went to third when pinch hitter Josh Hill singled to center. Manfred then came up and hit a 0-2 pitch to deep center field to bring home the winning run. Manfred finished the evening with a pair of hits and three RBI.
Ring closed out the game in the ninth to pick up the victory and improve his record to 2-1. UNLV reliever Jeremy Weinberg, who came on in the eighth in relief of starter Robbie Van, took the loss to drop to 1-3.
The Aztecs and Rebels conclude their three-game conference series Sunday afternoon (April 14) at 1:00 p.m. at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
San Diego State 5, UNLV 4UNLV 010 000 030 - 4 8 1SDSU 020 011 01x - 5 8 2Van, Weinberg (8), Maruffi (8) and VanKirkShortell, Hartshorn (8), Ring (8) and ManfredW - Ring (2-1)L - Weinberg (1-3)Sv - NoneHR - NoneAtt. - 720Time - 2:38