April 19, 2002
San Diego - San Diego State took advantage of 10 walks and a pair of errors by Brigham Young and defeated the Cougars, 6-3, Friday night at Tony Gwynn Stadium. With the win, SDSU improved to 32-13 overall and 14-3 in the Mountain West Conference. They now lead BYU (16-22-1 overall, 9-8 MWC) by five games. The loss by the Cougars means that Utah (8-7 MWC) moves into second place by percentage points, also five games behind the league-leading Aztecs.
For the second night in a row, Brigham Young jumped out to an early lead, scoring single runs in both the first and third innings. BYU opened the game with a single by Doug Jackson, and he scored on an RBI double by Dave Jensen. In the third, Cameron Coughlan hit a one-out double and came home on a single by Jensen.
The Aztecs came back in the bottom of the third to take a lead it would not relinquish. Singles by Jon Stephens, Jake McLintock and Rielly Embrey loaded the bases with two outs. Cougar starter Ryan Adams (3-5) then ran into a bit of wildness as he walked Brian Manfred to bring home a run and uncorked a wild pitch to tie the contest.
A walk to Josh Hill loaded the bases again, and Anthony Gwynn's grounder to first was booted by Jensen. Gwynn won the race to the bag, allowing the third run to come home.
SDSU extended its lead to 4-2 in the fourth when Chad Corona's sacrifice fly scored Carlo Cota from third.
In the next frame, the Aztecs led off with a walk to Manfred and single by Josh Hill. A sac bunt by Anthony Gwynn moved both runners up. Taber Lee then lifted a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Manfred, When the throw from cutoff man Ranger Wiens skipped by the third baseman into the dugout, Hill came in to score.
SDSU starter Rory Shortell (7-2) won for the seventh time on the season, but was in and out of trouble much of the night. He allowed seven hits and three walks while striking out four over his eight innings.
Closer Royce Ring came on to close out the contest in the ninth, allowing a leadoff infield single to Han Yi before retiring the next three batters, including the final two on strikeouts. The save was the 13th of the season for the Aztec junior right-hander, a new SDSU season record. The old mark was 12 saves by Curtis Smith during the 1979 campaign.
Second baseman Carlo Cota was the lone Aztec to record more than one hit on the night with a single and a double. For BYU, Dave Jensen finished 2-for-3 with two RBI while Matt Carson had a pair of doubles and scored a run.
Brigham Young and San Diego State conclude their three-game series on Saturday (April 20) at 1:00 p.m. at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
San Diego State 6, Brigham Young 3BYU 101 000 010 - 3 8 2SDS 003 120 00x - 6 7 0Adams, Garcia (6) and Birkeland, Weingarten (8)Shortell, Ring (9) and ManfredW - Shortell (7-2)L - Adams (3-5)Sv - Ring (13)HR - NoneAtt. - 842Time - 2:41