April 1, 2008
LOS ANGELES - The San Diego State offense was held in check by a trio of UCLA pitchers as the 23rd-ranked Bruins defeated SDSU, 6-2, Tuesday evening at Jackie Robinson Stadium in Los Angeles. The loss ended the Aztecs' six-game win streak as they dropped to 17-11 on the season. UCLA, meanwhile, improved to 13-10 as it defeated SDSU for the first time in five meetings.
After two scoreless innings, the Bruins took the lead in the third with a pair of runs on RBI singles by Adam Carrithers and Casey Haerther. Carrithers would tally two hits and three runs batted in on the night while Haerther would finish with a pair of hits and an RBI.
Bruin starting hurler Garett Claypool (1-0) went five innings as he was credited with the win. He gave up only one hit on the night, a single to Nick Romero to lead off the fourth. That base hit was followed by a walk to Garett Green with both runners advancing on a sacrifice bunt by Cory Vaughn. Romero then scored on a ground out to second by Brandon Glover to make it a 2-1 contest.
That was as close as SDSU would get the rest of the night as UCLA added a run in the bottom of the fourth and three more in the sixth to take a 6-1 lead. Aztec starter Jon Berger was charged with four of those runs as he suffered the loss to drop his record to 2-4.
San Diego State finally broke through in the hit column again in the top of the eighth as Cameron Johnson led off with an infield single. A walk to Troy Hanzawa and a single to center by Romero loaded the bases with no outs. Green then hit a shot off pitcher Jason Novak's leg to bring home Johnson and keep the bases loaded. However, SDSU's hopes of a comeback faded when Novak got Vaughn to pop out to first and induced Glover to hit into a double play to keep the score at 6-2.
SDSU finished with four hits in the game, two of which came off the bat of Nick Romero, who also scored one of the Aztecs' two runs. Cameron Johnson reached base in three of his four plate appearances with a single and a pair of walks.
The Aztecs will now return home to begin a nine-game home stand that starts with a three-game Mountain West Conference series against New Mexico this weekend. The first game vs. the Lobos is scheduled for Friday, April 4, at 6:00 p.m. (PDT) at Tony Gwynn Stadium.