April 28, 2002
San Diego - A pair of sacrifice flies by catcher Brian Manfred drove in the tying and winning runs and completed a San Diego State comeback as SDSU defeated Utah, 6-5, Sunday afternoon at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The win ended the Aztecs' three-game losing streak and improved their overall record to 34-16. Their 15-6 mark in league play gives them a five-game lead over the second-place Utes (27-20; 11-10 MWC) with nine conference games to play.
The game did not begin well for San Diego State, which saw Utah jump out to a 5-0 lead after three innings. The Utes roughed up Aztec starter Joe Carque for three runs in the opening inning, sandwiching four singles around a base on balls. Utah got RBIs from Adam Castleton, Mike Westfall and Mike Basham.
The visitors extended that lead in the third on a two-run homer by Westfall that brought in Brit Pannier who had singled.
SDSU's comeback began in the fourth when they put a pair of runs on the board off Utah starter Mitch Maio. Reilly Embrey and Jon Stephens opened the frame with singles, and were moved to second and third respectively on a sacrifice bunt by Chad Corona.
Taber Lee then reached safely on a throwing error by Ute second baseman Castleton, allowing Embrey to score. Back-to-back walks to Brian Manfred and Chad Redfern scored the second run of the inning. SDSU closed to within 5-4 when it added two more runs in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Stephens and RBI single by Corona.
The tying run came in the seventh inning after Stephens and Corona singled and moved up on a bunt by Taber Lee. Manfred then delivered a sac fly to knot the score.
In the ninth, Stephens and Corona again led off the inning with singles, this time off Ute reliever Mike Mackay. A walk to Lee by reliever Jared Snyder loaded the bases, and Manfred delivered a fly to deep center to bring home the winning run.
Stephens finished the day going 4-for-4 with three runs scored and an RBI while Corona collected three hits and a run batted in.
Royce Ring, who had come on the eighth, picked up the victory to improve to 3-1 on the year. Mackay took the loss to fall to 2-3.
The Aztecs will now take a break from conference play as they travel across town to face University of San Diego on Tuesday (April 30) at 3:00 p.m. That game can be heard live on the Internet at www.goaztecs.com with Alan Horton calling the action.
San Diego State resumes league action on Friday with a three-game series at Air Force. SDSU finishes the year with league series at New Mexico and UNLV before traveling to the MWC Tournament in Provo.
San Diego State 6, Utah 5Utah 302 000 000 - 5 14 1SDSU 000 220 101 - 6 12 0Maio, Overholt (5), Martinez (5), Mackay (8), Snyder (9) and HawesCarque, Human (4), Ring (8) and ManfredW - Ring (3-1)L - Mackay (2-3)Sv - NoneHR - Utah: Westfall (3rd-one on)Att. - 1,549Time - 3:16