March 14, 2008
SAN DIEGO - Cory Vaughn's shot deep over the left field fence with one out in the bottom of the 14th inning gave San Diego State a 5-4 victory over Brigham Young in the Mountain West Conference opener for both teams Thursday night at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The win improved SDSU to 8-7 on the season while the Cougars dropped to 7-8.
The contest brought back memories of the final two games of the 2007 regular season at Tony Gwynn Stadium when the Cougars twice defeated the Aztecs in 13 innings. This time, however, it was SDSU that prevailed in extra frames.
With both starting pitchers long departed by the time of Vaughn's blast, it was each team's closer that would be involved in the decision. And each went longer that usually expected of a hurler assigned to that role.
In San Diego State's case, freshman Addison Reed came on in the bottom of the 11th to get the final out of the inning with two runners aboard. He went the final 3.1 frames, allowing one hit with no walks and four strikeouts. Reed was credited with the win to advance his season mark to 2-0.
For Brigham Young, Blake Torgerson (2-2) took the mound in the bottom of the seventh and pitched the final seven innings. In his previous six appearances in 2008, he had gone a total of 9.1 innings, but the longer stint had little impact on his effectiveness. Until Vaughn reached him for the game-winning hit, Torgerson had given up only four hits while striking out 12 and walking none. He did not allow more than one Aztec to reach base in any inning and at one point retired 11 in a row. Unfortunately for Torgerson , his one mistake of the night caused him to be saddled with the loss.
Vaughn's game-winning hit would not have happened had the Aztecs not come from three runs down to tie the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the seventh.
After the visitors put single runs on the board in both the fourth and fifth, the San Diego State countered when freshman Brett Tanos connected for his first collegiate home run off BYU starter Jake Wortham to cut the deficit in half at 2-1.
Brigham Young, however, added a third run off SDSU's Stephen Strasburg in the fifth and a single marker against Shane Kaufman in the top of the seventh to take a 4-1 lead. Strasburg, who left the contest at the start of the seventh, walked two and struck out eight over his six innings of work, but two of the three runs charged to him were of the unearned variety.
San Diego State's three-run rally in the bottom half of the seventh began with a walk to Garett Green and a single by Vaughn, both off Wortham. The Cougars then brought on Michael Ward, but he proceeded to issue walks to pinch hitter Erik Castro and Tanos, forcing in a run to make it 4-2. Torgerson came on at this point and was greeted by a two-out two-run single from Pat Colwell to tie the game at four apiece.
Brigham Young had a runner at least to second base in the ninth through 12th innings, and nearly scored the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th. With two out and Andrew Law at first after being hit by pitch, Dan Vargas hit a shot toward third that went off third baseman Nick Romero's Glove and rolled up the line in foul territory. When Law was waved around third by the Cougar third base coach, SDSU left fielder Pat Colwell fired a strike to home to retire him by 15 feet.
Vaughn's game-winning homer came on the first pitch to him with one out in the bottom of the 14th. The SDSU right fielder finished the night with three hits, a pair of runs scored and the one important RBI. Tanos was the only other Aztec with more than one hit as he contributed a single, homer, a run scored and two RBI.
San Diego State and Brigham Young continue their three-game MWC series on Friday with a contest slated to start at 6:00 p.m. (PDT) at Tony Gwynn Stadium.