April 27, 2007
FORT WORTH, Texas - Ben Carruther's single to left in the bottom of the 10th drove home the winning run and capped off a late come-from-behind victory for TCU as it defeated San Diego State, 6-5, Friday evening at Lupton Stadium in Fort Worth. The victory enabled the Horned Frogs to improve to 32-10 overall and 13-2 in the Mountain West Conference. The Aztecs, meanwhile, failed to take advantage of an opportunity to close to within a half-game of the league leader as they dropped to 27-19 and 11-5 in MWC play.
Despite leaving 11 men on base over the first eight innings, San Diego State took a 5-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth and had its freshman closer, Stephen Strasburg on the mound. Strasburg had come on in the eighth and struck out the side as TCU scored once and had the tying run on base.
In the bottom of the ninth, pinch hitter Hunt Woodruff was hit by pitch and Carruthers followed with a double to left. One out later, a wild pitch scored Woodruff and put the tying run on third. After walk to Steven Trout, Strasburg fanned Andrew Walker for the second out. However, a passed ball on a 2-2 pitch to Matt Vern allowed Carruthers to score from third and knot the score at 5-5. Vern popped out to second on the next pitch.
TCU brought on their closer, Sam Demel, to pitch the 10th and he retired the side in order. In the bottom of the inning, Strasburg hit Clint Arnold before being replaced on the mound by Aaron Brady. After a walk to Matt McGuirk, Arnold was thrown out at third on an attempted sacrifice bunt by pinch hitter Teddy Kreder. That set the stage for Carruthers to poke a single through the left side to end the game.
Both starting pitchers were out of the contest by the sixth inning. SDSU's Bruce Billings went 5.1 innings, allowing two runs on six hits while striking out three. He left the game with the Aztecs holding a 3-2 lead.
San Diego State got to Horned Frog starter Jake Arrieta for a run in the first on an RBI double by Nick Romero and two more in the fifth on RBI singles by Joe Spiers and Frank LoNigro. That was enough to knock Arrieta out of the box after 4.1 innings in which he allowed the three runs on nine hits.
Demel was the eventual winner as he improved to 3-1 on the season. Strasburg was saddled with the loss as his record fell to 1-2.
Spiers and LoNigro had three hits apiece for the Aztecs who totaled 14 on the night. But SDSU couldn't get the hit they needed to break the game opened as it twice had a runner on third with less than two outs and failed to bring him home. The Aztecs had at least one man on in every inning as they also left the bases loaded in the third.
San Diego State and TCU will continue their weekend three-game series on Saturday (Apr. 28) with a single game at 2:00 p.m. (CDT).