May 23, 2006
LAS VEGAS, Nev. - Utah scored in five of the first six innings as it defeated San Diego State, 8-5, in the opening game of the Mountain West Conference Tournament at Earl E. Wilson Stadium in Las Vegas Tuesday afternoon. SDSU was unable to take advantage of several excellent scoring opportunities as it stranded 14 men over the course of the contest. The loss puts the Aztecs into the losers' bracket where they will face Air Force at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday morning.
The victory ended a three-game losing streak for the Utes, who improved to 28-26 on the year and advance to meet the winner of that Air Force BYU contest Wednesday afternoon. SDSU, meanwhile, saw its record fall to 22-35.
Utah took advantage of a pair of San Diego State errors to score unearned runs in both the first and third innings to take a 2-0 lead before the Aztecs got on the board in the bottom of the third. Brock Ungricht's sacrifice fly scored Quintin Berry, who had led off the frame with a single and advanced on a walk to Lance Zawadzki and sac bunt by Paul Smyth.
The Utes responded with a four-run outburst against Aztec starter Justin Masterson in the next frame. They scored those runs on three hits and a pair of walks, the big blow being a two-out two-RBI single by first baseman Jay Brossman to make it a 6-1 game.
After SDSU pulled a run back in its half of the fourth on a run-scoring single by Joey Huskins, Utah added a run to its total in the top of the fifth and one in the sixth to chase Masterson from the mound. The Aztec junior right-hander went five-plus innings, allowing eight runs (six earned) on nine hits as he dropped to 6-7 on the year.
SDSU reliever Mike Koons came on in relief of Masterson with none out and a runner on first in that sixth inning, and retired the 11 batters he faced (also getting a double play in the sixth) over the final four innings.
Utah starting pitcher Josh Cooper, meanwhile, struggled with his control, but managed to work his way out of several jams over his five innings of work. He walked seven, but saw SDSU leave the bases loaded in both the first and fifth innings. He left the game in the sixth after giving up four runs on the day. In the process he evened his season mark at 6-6.
Trailing 8-2, San Diego State tried to mount a comeback in that sixth inning, scoring twice on Smyth's bases-loaded two-RBI single before Ute reliever Shad McCord came on with two runners on and retired three in a row to end the Aztec threat.
Quintin Berry added a solo homer in the eighth to make the score 8-5, but that's as close as SDSU would get as closer Brad Devore came on to close out the game in the ninth and pick up his seventh save.
Berry ended the afternoon with a pair of hits, a walk, three runs scored and an RBI while teammate Paul Smyth had two hits and drove in a pair of runs.
San Diego State's game Wednesday morning can be heard live on GoAztecs.com with Alan Horton's pre-game show beginning at 8:45 a.m. Should the Aztecs win that contest, they would come back at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday to face UNLV in another elimination game.
Utah 8, San Diego State 5Utah 101 411 000 - 8 9 4SDSU 001 102 010 - 5 6 2Cooper, McCord (6), DeVore (9) and FrankMasterson, Koons (6) and SwaydanW - Cooper (6-6)L - Masterson (6-7)Sv - DeVore (7)HR - SDS: Berry-4 (8th-none on)Att. - 165Time - 3:07