April 21, 2007
Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State completed a two-game sweep of Air Force Saturday afternoon, winning Friday's suspended game as well as the contest scheduled to replace the one between the teams that was snowed out last month in Colorado Springs. The Aztecs recorded 8-3 and 18-2 victories to improve to 25-17 overall and 9-4 in the Mountain West Conference. The Falcons, meanwhile, dropped to 7-30 and 0-12 in the MWC.
After Friday night's contest was suspended in the bottom of the third with SDSU leading 2-0, the teams resumed play Saturday afternoon. The Falcons immediately took advantage of an Aztec pitching change as they scored three runs off reliever Garrett Parcell, who was on in place of Friday's starter Bruce Billings.
After retiring the first two batters in the fourth, Parcell gave up five consecutive singles as the visitors got RBI from Geno Salazar, Addison Gentry and K.J. Randhawa to take a 3-2 lead.
The Falcons' advantage was short-lived, however, as the Aztec struck for three runs of their own in the bottom of the frame to re-take the lead for good. Pat Colwell, Troy Hanzawa and Joe Spiers drove in a run apiece to put their team back on top at 5-3 and give Parcell new life.
Parcell then retired the next six batters he faced before giving way to Mike Koons, who allowed just one hit over the final three innings. The win was the first for Parcell (1-0) while Koons was credited with his first save of the season. For the Falcons, relieve Mitch Brown, who began Saturday's contest on the mound in place of starter Casey Allen, took the loss to fall to 2-8.
SDSU went on to score three runs in the sixth on three hits and three Air Force errors for the final 8-3 score line. Frank LoNigro ended the game with three hits and a pair of RBI while Joe Spiers had two hits, two RBI and two runs scored.
In the second game, which was a seven-inning affair as dictated by conference rules, saw San Diego State pound out 20 hits en route to the win. Leading 4-0 thanks in part to back-to-back homers by Nick Romero and LoNigro in the third, the Aztecs broke the contest open in the fourth as they sent 13 men to the plate and score nine times on seven hits and a pair of walks.
SDSU starter Steven Hirschfeld went six innings to pick up the win and improve to 4-2. His only mistake came in the bottom of the fifth when he was touched up by Falcon left fielder Chay Derbigny for a two-run homer.
Aztec sophomore Charles Nolte tossed a scoreless seventh inning to nail down the victory. Air Force starter Alex Truesdale (0-6), who gave up SDSU's first seven runs, took the loss.
LoNigro had a pair of double in addition to his homer and finished his day going 6-for-7 with six RBI and three runs scored. Second baseman Garett Green had four hits in the game and totaled six on the afternoon along with and four runs scored. Troy Hanzawa also collected three hits. All nine starters had at least one hit for the Aztecs, who were in the role of visitors for the contest.
SDSU outfielder Pat Colwell, who had not seen action since suffering an injury on Mar. 9, made a successful return to the lineup with four hits, three runs and three RBI in the two games.
Air Force and San Diego State will wrap up their weekend series with a pair of nine-inning games beginning at 10:00 a.m. at Tony Gwynn Stadium.