April 30, 2002
San Diego - San Diego State scored four unearned runs in the seventh inning to come from behind and defeat the University of San Diego, 8-5, at USD's Cunningham Stadium Tuesday afternoon. The win improved the Aztecs to 35-16 on the year while the Toreros dropped to 33-17.
SDSU took an early lead with a run in the third on a triple by Anthony Gwynn and RBI single by Taber Lee. They could have added to their advantage in each of the next two innings, but a bases-loaded double play in the fourth and another twin killing with two on and one out in the fifth spoiled their efforts.
With the Torero defense keeping SDSU from increasing its lead, USD's offense came to life in the fifth, scoring three times off SDSU starter Erik Fiedler. A bases-loaded walk to Tom Caple followed by a two-RBI single off the bat of designated hitter Tony Perez gave the home side a 3-1 lead.
San Diego State responded with a run in the sixth before regaining the lead with four in the seventh. In that inning, a single by Anthony Gwynn and walk to Carlo Cota put two on with two out.
Right fielder Jake McLintock then hit a hit chopper to the left of the mound that USD relief pitcher Matt Coy (0-2) fielded cleanly, but threw wildly past first baseman Jason Marian allowing two runs to score. That was followed by a walk to Chad Corona and back-to-back RBI singles by Jon Stephens and Rielly Embrey to give SDSU a 6-3 lead.
The Aztec added two more in the eighth on an RBI double by Lee and run-scoring single by McLintock. The Toreros countered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth and had runners on second and third with no outs against eventual winning pitcher Mike Moat (4-2).
At that point, SDSU brought in reliever Chris Hartshorn who retired the three batters he faced with no further damage. Royce Ring pitched the ninth inning to record his nation-leading 15th save of the season.
McLintock finished the day with three hits, a pair of runs and an RBI while teammate Anthony Gwynn had two singles and a triple with three runs scored.
San Diego now returns to Mountain West Conference action as it travels to Air Force for a three-game series beginning Friday (May 3) at 2:00 p.m. (MDT). That game can be heard live on the Internet at www.goaztecs.com with Alan Horton calling the play-by-play. The broadcast gets underway 10 minutes prior to game time (12:50 p.m. Pacific time) with the Aztec pre-game show.
San Diego State 8, San Diego 5SDS 001 001 420 - 8 12 1USD 000 030 020 - 5 9 2Fiedler, Moat (6), Hartshorn (8), Ring (9) and ManfredPerez, Dunn (4), Oseguera (6), Coy (7), Bass (7), Cummings (9) and DobekW - Moat (4-2)L - Coy (0-2)Sv - Ring (15)HR - NoneAtt. - 1,051Time - 3:36