May 6, 2006
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - After pounding out 21 hits and scoring a record 36 runs on Friday, San Diego State's offense was held in check by a trio of Air Force pitchers Saturday afternoon, but had enough to pull out a 7-5 victory over the Falcons Saturday afternoon in Colorado Springs.
The win was aided by a pair of home runs and four RBI from freshman second baseman Nick Romero, who had homered twice in the same inning in Friday's contest.
With the victory, SDSU improved to 19-31 overall and stayed in second place in the Mountain West Conference standings with a 12-6 league mark. The loss dropped Air Force to 10-29 (1-14 MWC).
After San Diego took the early lead on Romero's first homer of the day, a two-run shot in the second, Air Force put four on the board off Sewell in the bottom of the fourth to forge a 4-2 advantage. Those runs came on RBI singles by Karl Bolt and Jason Griggs plus a two-run double off the bat of Price Paramore.
The teams traded runs in the fifth with SDSU scoring on Romero's solo homer and the Falcons picking up an unearned run off Aztec reliever Mike Koons.
In the sixth, SDSU got that unearned run back as Joey Huskins' two-out bases-loaded grounder was misplayed by Griggs at second base, allowing Brock Ungricht to score from third to narrow the Falcon lead to 5-4.
San Diego tied the contest and took the lead with a pair of runs in the seventh. The first came on Paul Smyth's solo home run to left center field, his ninth of the season. An ensuing single by Ungricht spelled the end of the afternoon for Air Force's Allen, who was replaced by Josh Meents.
After Curt Mendoza was hit by pitch, Tim O'Brien hit a single to left off Meents that brought home the go-ahead run to make it a 6-5 contest.
After giving up a leadoff single in the fifth, SDSU hurler Mike Koons retired nine straight Falcon batters. After SDSU hit in the top of the eighth, the game was delayed for some 52 minutes due to a combination of lightning and hail. The stoppage was long enough to force the Aztecs to replace Koons, and Adam Simon came on to pitch.
San Diego State added an insurance run in the ninth as Ungricht led off with a double, went to third on a single by Tim O'Brien and scored on Nick Romero's RBI single to right to give the visitors a 7-5 lead.
After having retired the side in order in the eighth, Simon gave up a leadoff single to Austin Ferreria in the ninth, and a throwing error allowed him to advance to second and brought the potential tying run to the plate with no outs. A single by Price Paramore put runners on the corners with one out, but Simon struck out right fielder Brad Madison and catcher Bob Carpenter to end the game.
Mike Koons was credited with the win to improve to 4-6 while Simon recorded his sixth save of the season. Air Force's Casey Allen, despite pitching well over the first six innings, took the loss to fall to 1-4.
In addition to Nick Romero finishing with four hits for the Aztecs, Brock Ungricht also had two singles and a double, scoring three runs.
The Aztecs and Falcons will conclude their three-game weekend series with a contest on Sunday (May 7) at noon (MDT).
San Diego State 7, Air Force 5SDS 020 011 101 - 7 10 2AFA 000 410 000 - 5 7 1Sewell, Koons (6), Simon (8) and Swaydan, Anderson (6)Allen, Meents (7), Perez (8) and CarpenterW - Koons (4-6)L - Allen (1-4)Sv - Simon (6)HR - SDS: Romero-8 (2nd-one on) SDS: Romero-9 (5th-none on) SDS: Smyth-9 (7th-none on)Att. - 144Time - 3:24