March 20, 2004
SAN DIEGO - Landon Burt and Lance Zawadzki hit back-to-back home runs to lead off the fifth inning, breaking a 3-3 tie and sending San Diego State on its way to a 13-3 win over Air Force Saturday afternoon at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The win saw the Aztecs improve to 12-17 on the season and 2-0 in Mountain West Conference play. The Falcons, meanwhile, fell to 5-16 overall and 0-2 in league.
Senior first baseman Rielly Embrey continued his hot hitting, going 4-for-4 with a double, home run and four RBI. It was Embrey's second four-hit game in a row and he has now reached safely in his last 10 plate appearances (six singles, double, home run, two walks).
After Air Force opened the contest with a run in the first, SDSU answered with a pair in its half of the inning with RBI singles by James Guerrero and Embrey. The Aztecs upped their lead to 3-1 with a single run in the second before the visitors tied the contest in the top of the fourth with a two-run single by Jason Brown off Aztec starter Daryl Harang.
That set the stage for the consecutive home runs by Burt and Zawadzki. It was Burt's second homer in two days after he clubbed a grand slam in Friday night's contest. James Guerrero followed Zawadzki with a triple off the right center field fence as he just missed making it three homers in a row. He would score on a wild pitch and Rielly Embrey would also cross the plate later in the inning on Jake McLintock's sacrifice fly to make it a 7-3 SDSU lead.
The Aztecs would put the game away with four more runs in the sixth as they sent nine men to the plate and got RBI's from Embrey, third baseman Chad Corona and catcher Clay Coulter. SDSU's final two runs in the seventh came courtesy of Embrey's two-run homer, his third of the season. Coulter, Guerrero and Brock Ungricht all finished the day with a pair of hits.
Sophomore left Ben Coon, who came on in relief of Harang in the fifth, pitched a perfect 1.2 innings, striking out three, to pick up the victory and improve to 2-0. Harang, Coon and reliever Bruce Billings combined to strike out 13 Falcon batters.
Air Force starter Blake Nixon, who allowed SDSU's first six runs while striking out six over his three innings of work, suffered the loss to fall to 0-4.
The Aztecs and Falcons conclude their three-gamer series Sunday afternoon (March 21) when they face off at Tony Gwynn Stadium at noon.
San Diego State 13, Air Force 3AFA 100 200 000 - 3 8 3SDS 210 404 20x - 13 14 1Nixon, Hodgson (4), Edwards (6), Graham (8) and PolstonHarang, Coon (5), Billings (7), Teasley (9) and Coulter, Swaydan (8)W - Coon (2-0)L - Nixon (0-4)Sv - NoneHR - SDS: Burt (4th-none on), Zawadzki (4th-none on), Embrey (7th-one on)Att. - 518Time - 3:21