May 20, 2005
SAN DIEGO - After being held in check the previous two days, the San Diego State offense unleashed a 16-hit attack as SDSU defeated Brigham Young, 12-1, Friday afternoon at Tony Gwynn Stadium. Sophomore right-hander Brett Douglas complemented the offensive output as he threw eight innings of shutout ball to pick up his second straight win.
The victory ended a short two-game losing streak for the Aztecs as they saw their record move to 23-33 overall and 17-13 in the Mountain West Conference. In the process, they secured third place in the final league standings and will be the number-three seed at next week's conference tournament.
The loss stopped BYU's four-game win streak as it fell to 37-17-1 (21-9 MWC). It also meant that UNLV can wrap up the regular-season league title with a win in either of its final two contests against Utah at home (tonight and tomorrow).
San Diego State took advantage of some early wildness on the part of Cougar starter James Platt (3-2) as he opened the bottom of the first with walks to Quintin Berry and Garrick Evans. A sacrifice bunt by James Guerrero moved both runners up 90 feet before Jake McLintock lofted a fly ball to right to drive in Berry.
Lance Zawadzki then sent a ball deep over the right center field fence to stake the Aztecs to a 3-0 lead. It was the first of two long balls on the afternoon for the Aztec third baseman, who ended his day with a solo shot off the wall beyond the right field fence in the eighth.
Given the early advantage, Douglas (2-3) was masterful over his eight innings of work, allowing no runs on seven hits and striking out five. After reaching his pitch count at the end of the eighth, he was removed from the contest and the visitors scored an unearned consolation run in the ninth.
After taking the early lead, SDSU built its advantage by scoring in each inning from the fourth through the eighth. Quintin Berry and Tim O'Brien recorded three hits apiece with Berry scoring three times and O'Brien crossing the plate twice.
Zawadzki totaled four RBI on the afternoon while Jordan Swaydan and Kevin Perry had two hits and two runs batted in apiece.
By virtue of clinching the number-three seed at the MWC Tournament, SDSU will open play at that event against Air Force next Wednesday (May 25) at 11:00 a.m. (MDT) at Franklin Covey Field in Salt Lake City.
The game can be heard live on the Internet at www.goaztecs.com with Alan Horton calling the play-by-play. The pre-game show will begin at 9:50 a.m. Pacific time.
San Diego State 12, Brigham Young 1BYU 000 000 001 - 1 7 0SDS 300 221 22x - 12 16 2Platt, Christiansen (5), Barrett (6), Torgerson (8) and ClowardDouglas, Bruckart (9) and SwaydanW - Douglas (2-3)L - Platt (3-2)Sv - NoneHR - SDS: Zawadzki-2 (7)Time - 2:40Att. - 462