March 21, 2008
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Utah scored four unearned runs in the first inning then withstood a late SDSU comeback attempt to claim a 7-5 win over the Aztecs Friday night at Franklin Covey Field in Salt Lake City. The loss was the first in five Mountain West Conference outings for San Diego State, which saw its record fall to 11-10 overall and 4-1 in league play. The Utes, meanwhile, improved to 7-11 and evened their conference slate at 1-1.
SDSU took a quick 1-0 lead in the contest, jumping on Utah starter Brian Budrow with consecutive singles by Nick Romero, Garett Green and Cory Vaughn in the top of the first. That advantage was shirt-lived, however, as the home side answered with four runs in the bottom of the inning on three hits and one costly error.
After Corey Shimada and Michael Beltran opened with singles off Aztec starter Nate Solow, Cody Guymon hit a ball back to the mound that had double play written all over it. But Solow's throw to third was wild, allowing Shimada to score and putting runners on second and third with no outs. A strikeout and a pop out to second sandwiched around a walk loaded the bases with two outs before Fred Ferguson tripled to left center field to clear the bases and make it a 4-1 contest.
From there, Budrow took control of the game, shutting down the SDSU offense over the next six innings. Although he allowed a base runner in five of those six frames, only one reached as far as second base.
Utah built on its lead, scoring carbon copy runs in both the second and fourth innings. In each instance, third baseman DC Legg led off with a single, went to third on a one-out single by Beltran, and scored on a fielder's choice by Guymon. Solow (1-3), who was charged with the loss, departed in the bottom of the fourth after allowing six runs (two earned) on eight hits while striking out five.
Trailing 6-1, San Diego State finally got to Budrow in the eighth, scoring three runs on four hits. The Aztecs got an RBI double from Romero, a sacrifice fly from Garett Green and a run-scoring single from Vaughn to make it a 6-4 contest.
After the Utes got a run back in the bottom of the inning, SDSU tried to rally in the ninth as Brandon Decker reached second base with one out when Utah left fielder Dustin Hennis dropped his deep fly ball. Decker scored on a Pat Colwell single, but that's all the Aztecs could get as reliever John James, who had come on in the top of the eighth, retired the final two batters to record his first save of the season. Budrow was credited with the win to improve to 3-1.
Colwell ended the night with three hits while Romero, Green and Vaughn had two apiece with the latter driving in two runs as well. Senior right-hander Shane Kaufman went the final 4.1 innings in relief of Solow, allowing a run on three hits while striking out three.
San Diego State and Utah will conclude their three-game series on Saturday, March 22, at 1:00 p.m. (MDT).