April 8, 2006
SAN DIEGO - New Mexico pitcher Danny Ray Herrera shut down the SDSU offense and the Lobos broke open a tight game with five runs in the eighth inning en route to an 8-3 victory over the Aztecs Saturday afternoon at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
The loss put an end to San Diego State's four-game win streak as it fell to 10-25 overall and 4-2 in Mountain West Conference play, dropping the Aztecs into second place one game behind TCU. The Lobos, meanwhile, ended a three-game losing streak to move to 19-11 on the season (2-4 MWC).
Aztec starter Bruce Billings (1-3) pitched well over his six innings of work, but made his lone mistake when Lobo second baseman Jordan Pacheco hit a three-run home to left in the second that came after Billings had issued a pair of walks to UNM hitters Ian Hollick and Ryan Barba.
Herrera, meanwhile, allowed just two Aztec base runners through the first three innings, those coming on a walk and an error. SDSU finally broke through in the fourth when Brock Ungricht's two-out double scored Paul Smyth from first base to make it a 3-1 game.
The Aztecs made it a 3-2 contest two innings later when Smyth doubled home Nick Romero. The score remained the same until UNM's five-run outburst in the eighth that came on four hits, a hit batter and a pair of SDSU errors. One of those hits was a two-run homer by first baseman Chris Carlson that scored the first two runs of the inning.
Herrera, who tossed a complete game for UNM to improve to 6-0, finished with nine strikeouts on the afternoon and gave up just five hits.
New Mexico and San Diego State will play the rubber game of their three-game series on Sunday, (April 9) at 1:00 p.m. at SDSU.
New Mexico 8, San Diego State 2UNM 030 000 050 - 8 7 1SDS 000 101 000 - 2 5 2Herrera and McDonaldBillings, Coon (7), Lynch (8), Douglas (8) and Swaydan, Anderson (1)W - Herrera (6-0)L - Billings (1-3)Sv - NoneHR - UNM: Pacheco-3 (2nd-two on) UNM: Carlson-8 (8th-one on)Att. - 462Time - 2:46