April 14, 2007
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - For the second day in a row, one big inning determined the outcome of the game as Utah scored five times in the fifth and went on to claim a 5-4 win over San Diego State Saturday afternoon at Franklin Covey Field.
The win allowed the Utes to improve to 15-19 overall as they evened their Mountain West Conference record at 4-4. The Aztecs, meanwhile, fell to 22-16 and 7-3 in league play.
SDSU took the early lead in the contest with a run in the second inning as Frank LoNigro and Brandon Glover opened with back-to-back singles. Glover moved to third on a fielder's choice off the bat of Brian Lucas and scored on Garett Green's sacrifice fly to left.
The Aztecs doubled their lead three innings later as Green singled, advanced to second on Chris Anderson's sacrifice bunt and came home on a triple to right by Cameron Johnson.
The two runs were all that SDSU could muster off Utah starting pitcher Eric King (4-1), who scattered eight hits over his seven innings of work as he would pick up his fourth win of 2007.
San Diego State starter Bruce Billings allowed just one hit over the first four innings, but his day came unraveled in the bottom of the fifth as the Utes score five times on five hits and a walk. The big blow during the rally was a grand slam by left fielder Dustin Hennis that gave the home side a 5-2 lead. The Utes' offensive outburst made a loser of Billings, who fell to 3-2 on the season.
San Diego had a golden opportunity to get back into the game in the top of the seventh. With one out, Mike Willeford reached on an error by Ute third baseman Bret Baldwin and Cameron Johnson followed with a single to put runners on first and second. Troy Hanzawa then singled to right, but Willeford was thrown out at the plate trying to score. On the play, Hanzawa broke for second base when the throw went through to the plate, but Johnson was still there. Hanzawa was caught in a rundown and eventually tagged out to end the inning.
The Aztecs did get a pair of runs in the eighth as three singles loaded the bases with one out. Green then singled home a run and a second came in on a sacrifice fly by Anderson to make it a 5-4 game. However, that's as close as SDSU would get as Utah reliever Brett Bruneel finished the game without any further scoring to record his third save.
Frank LoNigro led the Aztec offense with three hits on the afternoon including a double and also scored a pair of runs. Johnson and Green tallied two hits apiece for SDSU as well. Junior right-hander Shane Kaufman, who took over for Billings with one out in the fifth, pitched the final 3.2 innings, allowing just two hits while striking out a pair.
San Diego State and Utah will play the rubber game of their weekend series on Sunday (Apr. 15) in Salt Lake City with first pitch scheduled for 1:00 p.m. (MDT).