April 27, 2008
SAN DIEGO - For the second straight day, San Diego State pitchers could not keep the TCU offense under control as the Horned Frogs captured the rubber game of the three-game series by the score of 13-6. After scoring in each of the first six innings on Saturday, TCU put nine runs on the board over the final four frames in their win on Sunday.
With the victory, the Horned Frogs (29-15, 13-5 MWC) moved into a virtual tie with New Mexico for first place in the Mountain West Conference standings. The loss dropped the Aztecs to 25-19 overall and 11-7 in league play, putting them in third, two games behind the league co-leaders.
SDSU took the early lead in Sunday's contest on an RBI single by Troy Hanzawa in the first for a 1-0 advantage. The lead was short-lived, however, as TCU struck for four runs in the top of the second off Aztec senior starter Shane Kaufman, with the final two coming on three consecutive two-out base hits.
San Diego State cut the deficit to 4-2 in the bottom of the second as Erik Castro doubled and came home on Bubba Ruddy's ensuing RBI single to right center. It was the first of three run-scoring singles on the afternoon for Ruddy, who has now gone 9-for-18 in his last four starts to raise his batting average to .333.
With James McLaughlin on the mound for SDSU, TCU was held scoreless for three innings before getting to the junior right-hander for two runs in the sixth on back-to-back doubles down the left field line by Hunt Woodruff and Matt Vern plus a single by Clint Arnold. The visitors added two more in the seventh on a two-run homer to right by Matt Carpenter.
Aztec junior reliever Jon Berger fared little better as he allowed three of the Horned Frogs four runs in the eighth with senior Brandon Pullen being touched up for the final two (one in the eighth and one in the ninth). The final result made a loser of Kaufman, who saw his record drop to 1-2. TCU's Trent Appleby, who came on in relief of starter Gregg Holle in the fifth, went 2.2 innings to record the win and improve to 3-1.
In addition to Ruddy, outfielder Pat Colwell finished the afternoon with three hits, a run scored and an RBI while senior Brandon Glover had a pair of hits with two runs scored and two walks. Brandon Decker and Erik Castro also had two hits apiece for the Aztecs with Castro recording his fourth double in the past three games. San Diego State ended up with 14 hits, its highest total of any of the three games this weekend, but they were spread over six innings as the Aztecs had several opportunities with men in scoring position that they could not cash in.
SDSU now faces a busy week as it leaves for a two-game series at 20th-ranked Arizona in Tucson on Tuesday and Wednesday (April 29-30) before resuming conference play with a three-game series at Air Force next weekend (May 2-4).