May 11, 2007
SAN DIEGO - Kasey Ko's single in the top of the 13th inning drive home the winning run as Brigham Young defeated San Diego State, 4-3, Friday night at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The hit ended a game that saw both teams fail to cash in on earlier opportunities to win the contest. The victory allowed to Cougars to improve to 30-18 over and 13-7 in the Mountain West Conference while SDSU fell to 28-27 and 12-11 in league play.
After the visitors took an early lead on a first-inning home run by Leon Johnson, the Aztecs knotted the score in the second on a double by Brandon Glover and RBI single by Brian Lucas.
BYU re-took the lead with a run n the top of third on a two-out double by Johnson and single by Stephen Wells, only to have San Diego State tie the game at 2-2 in the fifth when Troy Hanzawa's single to right brought home Pat Colwell.
Once again the Cougars took a one-run lead, this time on an RBI single by Steve Parker in the eighth. That appeared to be the game-winning score until the bottom of the ninth when Lucas drove home the tying run in the person of Glover, who had doubled with one out.
By this time, both BYU starter Jake Wortham and Steven Hirschfeld had departed and the contest was turned over to the Cougar's Matt Jensen and SDSU's Stephen Strasburg.
San Diego State had a runner on in each of the extra innings, but was unable to take advantage of its opportunities. Jensen (5-4), the eventual winning pitcher, went the final 4.2 innings, allowing three hits and a walk while striking out five.
SDSU's Strasburg (1-3) tossed the final five frames, his longest outing of the season. He also allowed three hits while walking none and striking out six. After allowing one hit over his first four innings, Strasburg gave up a leadoff double to Nakayama to open the 13th inning.
After a grounder back to the pitcher and a strikeout, Ko hit a chopper up the middle that tipped off the outstretched Glove of Aztec second baseman Garett Green and rolled into center field to bring home the winning run.
In the bottom of the inning, Joe Spiers led off with a single, but was out attempting to steal second. Jensen then struck out the final two Aztec hitters to nail down the victory.
Brandon Glover led the Aztecs with his second consecutive three-hit contest as he had a single, two doubles and a pair of runs scored. Brain Lucas had two RBI singles while Spiers and Green also had two hits apiece.
Brigham Young and San Diego State will conclude their three-game series on Saturday (May12) at 1:00 p.m. in a game set to be televised on The Mtn network. The game will be SDSU's last regular-season contest. It has also been designated as Senior Day to honor a pair of Aztecs (Bruce Billings and Frank LoNigro) making their final appearance at home for the Red and Black.