May 22, 2003
Albuquerque - San Diego State broke open a tight pitchers' duel with four runs in the seventh inning and went on to defeat Brigham Young, 6-0, in second-round action at the 2003 Mountain West Conference Tournament at Isotopes Park in Albuquerque. It was only the third shutout in MWC Tournament history and saw the Aztecs improve to 28-30 as they won their fifth straight game, a season high. The loss dropped BYU to 29-23 on the year.
The SDSU pitching trio of starter Joe Carque and relievers Ben Leuthard and Drew Jenson combined to shut down the potent BYU attack on four hits, and the Aztec defense did its part by not committing an error.
San Diego State opened the scoring with a run in the first. Landon Burt led off with a single, was sacrificed to second by James Guerrero, and scored on Anthony Gwynn's triple, the first of a pair of three-baggers for the Aztec junior.
Gwynn's two triples set a record for most by an individual in a conference tournament contest. SDSU also got a triple from Jordan Swaydan later in the game to establish a new tourney mark for triples by a team (three).
For his part, Carque was masterful over the first five innings, striking out six and allowing just two hits. However, he ran into trouble in the sixth, loading the bases with two outs on a pair of walks and a single. After going to a 2-0 count on Cougar centerfielder Brock Jacobsen, Carque was lifted for right-hander Ben Leuthard. The senior form San Diego tossed a ball to make the count 3-0, then threw a pair of called strikes and struck out Jacobsen swinging.
Meanwhile, BYU starter Jeff Mousser, aided by some excellent defensive plays, kept the Aztecs at bay. After the first inning triple by Gwynn, he allowed just three hits and struck out six through the first six innings.
The Aztec offense came alive in the seventh when it scored four times on six straight hits. Chad Corona started the inning with a single and went to third on Kyle Floquet's double that hit the top of the left field fence and came back into play. Jordan Swaydan followed with an RBI double to score Corona, but Floquet was out at the plate trying to score.
Landon Burt then singled to score Swaydan from second, and James Guerrero's single was followed by Gwynn's two-run triple to give SDSU a 5-0 lead. They added one more run in the eighth on another double by Floquet and Swaydan's triple.
Junior lefty Drew Jenson, who picked up a save in Wednesday's Aztec victory, worked the final two innings to preserve the shutout.
Burt and Swaydan collected three hits apiece for San Diego State while Gwynn drove in three runs for the second consecutive game. Burt is 7-for-10 with five runs scored in tourney play while Gwynn has six hits and six RBIs.
The Aztecs will now face regular-season champion UNLV at 11:00 a.m. (MDT) Friday (May 23) with the winning team advancing to Saturday's championship contest. The loser of tomorrow morning's game will play the winner of the afternoon game (Utah-BYU) at 7:00 p.m. Friday night with the winner moving into Saturday's title contest.
San Diego State 6, Brigham Young 0BYU 000 000 000 - 0 4 0SDS 100 000 41x - 6 11 0Mousser, Chrisman (8) and ClowardCarque, Leuthard (6), Jenson (8) and SwaydanW - Carque (5-5)L - Mousser (5-7)Sv - NoneHR - NoneAtt. - 710Time - 2:24