April 28, 2007
FORT WORTH, Texas - Two San Diego State errors led to three unearned runs for TCU, and those runs proved costly as the Horned Frogs defeated the Aztecs, 6-5, Saturday afternoon at Lupton Stadium. The loss allowed TCU to widen its lead at the top of the Mountain West Conference standings to 3.5 games over both SDSU and BYU as it improved to 32-10 overall and 14-2 in league play. The loss dropped SDSU's season mark to 27-20 (11-5 MWC).
SDSU junior right-hander Steven Hirschfeld was the victim of his teammate's miscues as he took the loss to fall to 4-3 on the season. That despite a fine outing that saw him toss 5.2 innings, scattering seven hits and striking out three. Only three of the six runs charged to him were of the earned variety.
TCU opened the scoring with a pair of unearned runs in the second inning. After Matt Vern doubled with one out, a strikeout of Clint Arnold was followed by Hunt Woodruff's sharp grounder that was booted by SDSU second baseman Garett Green. The ball went off Green's glove and rolled into right field allowing Vern to score. Steve Ellington then delivered an RBI double into the gap in right center to bring home Woodruff from first as the horned Frogs took the early 2-0 lead.
SDSU got a run back in the third on a single by Josh Chasse, a balk and a two-out double to center by Joe Spiers.
The Aztecs took a 4-2 lead one inning later when Brandon Glover drew a one-out walk and advanced to third on Garett Green's single to right. Pat Colwell then laced a triple to right center to drive in Glover and Green. Colwell scored one batter later on Chris Anderson's sacrifice fly to right to give the visitors the advantage.
The Horned Frogs struck back immediately, however, as Woodruff hit a 1-2 pitch over the right field fence in the bottom of the fourth, scoring Arnold ahead of him to knot the game at 4-4.
The Aztecs manufactured a run in the top of the fifth as Joe Spiers walked, was balked to second, stole third and scored on Nick Romero's grounder to short. Again TCU wasted little time getting the run back in the same frame as Bryan Kervin singled, went to third on an infield hit and error, and scored on a sac fly by Andrew Walker to make it a 5-5 contest.
TCU took the lead for good in the sixth on a hit batter and back-to-back singles by Carruthers and Kervin, with the latter brining home to go-ahead run to give the home side a 6-5 lead. Horned Frog reliever Donald Furrow improved to 2-0 as he was the pitcher of record when his team went ahead for the final time.
TCU closer Sam Demel, who picked up the win in Friday night's contest when he tossed a perfect 10th inning, came on to pitch the final two innings. Demel retired all three batters he faced in the eighth, but allowed Pat Colwell and Brandon Decker to open the ninth with back-to-back singles. He then retired the final three hitters in order, two via the strikeout, to record his eighth save of the year.
SDSU first baseman Joe Spiers continued his hot hitting as he extended his hitting streak to nine games with three hits (including a double). He also scored a run and drove in another. Over the past nine games, Spiers is hitting .583 with 14 runs scored and 11 RBI.
Right fielder Pat Colwell was the only other Aztec with more than one hit on the day as he tallied a triple and two singles with a pair of runs batted in.
San Diego State and TCU will conclude their weekend series on Sunday (Apr. 29) with game time set for 1:00 p.m. (CDT).