April 7, 2007
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State completed a three-game sweep of New Mexico as it recorded a 13-6 win over the Lobos Saturday afternoon at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The Aztecs broke open a close game by sending 10 men to the plate and scoring five times in the sixth inning. With the victory, SDSU (21-14, 6-2 MWC) remains in second place in the Mountain West Conference standings, one game behind TCU, which had its contest at Air Force canceled due to snow.
The loss was the fourth straight for the Lobos at the hands of San Diego State after they had captured the first two games of last weekend's three-game series between the teams in Albuquerque. The loss dropped UNM to 14-21 overall and 3-6 in the MWC.
A trio of Aztecs (Brian Lucas, Aaron Brady and Mike Willeford) finished with four hits apiece as every starter had at least one hit and eight of the nine collected an RBI. The team total of 24 hits was the most by San Diego State in a game this season.
SDSU opened the scoring on RBI singles from Matt Parker and Mike Willeford to take a 2-0 lead in the second with Willeford driving in another run two innings later to give the Aztecs a 3-0 advantage. After the visitors struck twice in the top of the fifth, SDSU returned the favor in the bottom of the same inning as Brandon Glover and Brian Lucas drove home runs to make it a 5-2 game.
After the Lobos cut the margin to two with a run in the top of the sixth, SDSU scored five times in the bottom of the inning on seven hits. The big blow in the frame was a two-run homer by Frank LoNigro, his second of the season that made it a 10-3 game.
New Mexico, however, got back-to-back homers by Jordan Pacheco (a two-run shot) and Daniel Stovall to close within four at 10-6, but for the third time in the game SDSU responded in the bottom of the same inning, scoring three times on a two-run single by Parker and a run-scoring hit by Troy Hanzawa.
Aztec starter Bruce Billings started strong as he retired the first 13 batters he faced before running into trouble in the fifth. He finished his day with six innings of work, allowing three runs on five hits while picking up the win to improve to 3-1.
For the Lobos, Adam Skelton made his first start on the mound, giving up eight runs (six earned) before leaving the game after 5.1 innings. With the loss, his record dropped to 0-1.
San Diego State will now takes a break from conference play as it travels to Los Angeles on Tuesday (Apr. 10) to face Loyola Marymount at 3:00 p.m. (PDT) at George Page Stadium on the LMU campus.