April 24, 2007
LONG BEACH, Calif. - After a weekend when its offense was dominant, San Diego State was held scoreless Tuesday evening in a 4-0 loss to Long Beach State at Blair Field. The loss ended a five-game winning streak for SDSU as it dropped to 27-18 on the year.
The Aztecs were able to muster only three hits on the night, doubles by Troy Hanzawa in the fourth and Pat Colwell in the sixth plus a single by Joe Spiers in the ninth.
San Diego State sophomore Charles Nolte paid the price for SDSU's lack of offensive output as he took the loss in his first collegiate start, falling to 0-1 on the year. Nolte pitched well enough, allowing two runs on four hits over 4.2 innings while striking out three.
Long Beach State (24-14) opened the scoring in the third as Matt Cline singled through the right side with two outs. Shane Peterson then laced a double to the wall in left center, scoring Cline who was on the move with the pitch.
The 49ers doubled their advantage in the fifth, again putting a run on the board after the first two hitters of the inning were retired. TJ Mittelstaedt walked and went to third on a single by Cline. That spelled the end of the evening for Nolte as Nate Solow was brought on in relief.
The Aztecs freshman left-hander proceeded to walk Peterson and Steve Tinoco to bring home a run and make it a 2-0 game before striking out Robert Perry to end the threat. However, a leadoff walk in the next inning proved costly as a sacrifice bunt and a single up the middle by Kip Masuda off Solow gave the home side a 3-0 lead.
Mike Koons was the called out of the bullpen, but after getting the second out of the inning by striking out Chris Nelson he gave up back-to-back singles to Mittelstaedt and Cline with Masuda scoring on the latter's hit to make it 4-0.
LBSU starting pitcher Manny McElroy (3-1) kept the Aztec offense in check all night, allowing just two hits while striking out five and walking none over his seven innings of work. SDSU's only threat against him all evening came in the seventh when a pair of 49er errors put runners on first and third with no outs. McElroy proceeded to get a pop out to short, a strikeout and a fly by to right to snuff out the threat without allowing a run.
The 49ers brought on reliever Adam Wilk to start the eighth, and the freshman left-hander retired six of the seven hitters he faced over the final two innings to nail down the victory.
San Diego State will now prepare to resume conference play as it travels to Fort Worth this weekend to face league-leading TCU in a three-game series. The first contest of that set is scheduled for Friday, Apr. 27, at 6:30 p.m. (CDT) at the Horned Frogs' Lupton Stadium.