Feb. 6, 2004
San Diego - Three UC Santa Barbara pitchers limited San Diego State to five hits while striking out 11 as the Gauchos opened their 2004 season with an 8-2 win at Tony Gwynn Stadium Friday night. The loss dropped the Aztecs to 4-5 on the year.
UCSB got on the board first on a solo home run by catcher Taylor Vogt in the second inning off Aztec starter Scott Shoemaker. Santa Barbara doubled its lead in the third on a sacrifice fly by second baseman Chris Malec that scored Nate Sutton from third.
San Diego State pulled a run back in its half of the third on a two-out RBI single off the bat of Curt Mendoza. From there, the Aztecs were only to muster one hit over the final six innings off Gaucho starter Steve Morlock and relievers Rich Sorenson and Aaron Jones. Morlock, who went five innings, picked up the win while SDSU's Shoemaker (1-1) took the loss.
UC Santa Barbara extended its lead to 5-1 before SDSU scored its final run in the fifth on a run-scoring single by freshman Brock Ungricht. It was Ungricht's second hit of the night and extended his hitting streak to nine games as her has hit safely in each of the Aztecs' contests this season.
The three UCSB pitchers retired 14 of the final 15 SDSU batters they faced to close out the game. Nine different Santa Barbara batters had one hit apiece for the visitors with Bill Rowe and Matt Emerick collecting a pair of RBIs each.
The Aztecs and Gauchos continue their three-game series with a contest on Saturday, Feb. 7) at 1:00 p.m. at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
UC Santa Barbara 8, San Diego State 2UCSB 011 210 102 - 8 9 0SDSU 010 010 000 - 2 5 2Morlock, Sorenson (6), Jones (9) and VogtShoemaker, Coon (6), Bruckart (9) and SwaydanW - Morlock (1-0)L - Shoemaker (0-1)Sv - NoneHR - UCSB: Vogt (2nd-none on)Att. - 717Time: - 3:14