April 30, 2006
SAN DIEGO - Senior outfielder Paul Smyth hit a pair of home runs and junior right-hander Bruce Billings recorded a career-high 12 strikeouts as San Diego State (17-30; 10-6 MWC) took the rubber game of its three-game weekend series against TCU with a 5-2 win Sunday afternoon at Tony Gwynn Stadium. It was only fitting that on Senior Day it was the Aztec left fielder who was the hero as he hit a solo shot in the first, then connected for a two-run homer in the eighth as the Aztecs defeated the Horned Frogs (26-19; 12-4 MWC) for the third time in four meetings this season.
Smyth's first home run came in the opening inning off TCU starter Sam Demel, who had closed out the game and recorded a save in Saturday night's 10-inning Horned Frog win.
Two innings later, after Jordan Swaydan led off with a single and Lance Zawadzki was hit by pitch, first baseman Brock Ungricht came through with a two-run bloop single to center to make it a 3-0 contest.
Billings, meanwhile, recorded seven of the first eight Horned Frog outs in the game via the strikeout en route to his personal-best mark. TCU finally got to the Aztec starter in the fifth, scoring a run on consecutive singles by Matt Carpenter, Andrew Walker and Austin Adams to close the gap to 3-1.
The game got tighter in the top of the eighth when TCU first baseman Chad Huffman led off with a home run to dead center and Carpenter followed with a double. However, Billings worked himself out of trouble by getting a pair of fly balls to right and a strikeout to end the threat. A fine sliding catch by right fielder Curt Mendoza on the first out of the inning had saved the tying run from coming home.
With the Aztecs looking for an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth, Quintin Berry's one out walked signaled the end of the day for TCU's Demel, who was relieved by Omar Arif. After getting the second out of the inning, Arif saw his second pitch to Smyth sail out of the ball park, giving SDSU a three-run cushion at 5-2.
In the ninth, Adam Simon came on in relief of Billings, closing out the contest for his team-leading fifth save of the year. With the win, Billings improved to 4-3 while Demel saw his record drop to 5-4.
San Diego State will take a short break from conference play as it hosts University of San Diego on Tuesday, May 2, at 6:00 p.m. The Aztecs then resume league action with a three-game series at Air Force beginning Friday (May 5) at 2:00 p.m. (MDT) in Colorado Springs.
San Diego State 5, TCU 2TCU 000 001 010 - 2 8 0SDS 102 000 02x - 5 8 1Billings, Simon (9) and SwaydanDemel, Arif (8), Farish (8) and WalkerW - Billings (4-3)L - Demel (5-4)Sv - Simon (5)HR - SDS: Smyth-7 (1st-none on) TCU: Huffman-10 (8th-none on) SDS: Smyth-8 (8th-one on)Time - 2:59Att. - 568