April 30, 2008
TUCSON, Ariz. - Arizona scored twice in the opening inning and then sent 10 men to the plate in the second to build an early eight-run lead as it went on to a 11-2 win over San Diego State Wednesday afternoon at Kendall Field at Frank Sancet Stadium in Tucson. The win gave the Wildcats (30-13) a sweep of the four games between the teams this season as they won twice in San Diego in early April and twice at home the past two days.
For the second straight start, Aztec senior right-hander Shane Kaufman lasted only 1.2 innings as he suffered his second consecutive loss to fall to 1-3 on the season. Although four of the five outs re recorded were strikeouts, Kaufman allowed eight runs on seven hits and also surrendered three walks, each of which would come around to score.
Trailing 8-0, the Aztecs (25-21) made a little noise in the top of the third, scoring a pair of runs to cut the deficit to six. With two out, Pat Colwell doubled to left and came home on Brandon Decker's single. A base hit to right by Troy Hanzawa put runners on first and third with Decker scoring on Nick Romero's single.
Arizona negated that SDSU rally with three more of its own in the bottom of the fourth off reliever Jon Berger, who was charged those three runs as he surrendered a total of four hits while striking out one over his 1.2 innings of work on the afternoon.
Trailing 11-2, the Aztecs scored once in the fifth on a walk to Colwell and a triple to right center by Hanzawa, his team-leading seventh three-bagger of the season. That run came off Wildcat pitcher Matt Chaffee, who had come on in the previous inning in relief of starter Grayson Adams. Chaffee (1-0) would go 2.1 innings, allowing the lone run on a pair of hits while striking out three to record his first win of the season.
After putting two runners on base in both the sixth and seventh innings but coming up empty, SDSU added a run in the top of the eighth on consecutive two-out singles by Brett Tanos, Colwell and Decker to make it an 11-4 contest.
However, the home team had the final say, scoring twice in its half of the eighth for the final 13-4 score line. On the day, nine of Arizona's 18 hits were of the extra-base variety including five doubles and four triples that came off a total of seven Aztec pitchers.
SDSU third baseman Nick Romero led the Aztecs with three hits (two singles and a double) and one RBI while teammates Colwell, Decker and Hanzawa tallied two hits apiece. In the process, Decker and Colwell extended their hitting streaks to 14 and 12 games respectively.
After returning home this evening, San Diego State will depart on Thursday for a Mountain West Conference series at Air Force. That series gets underway on Friday, May 2, at 2:00 p.m. (MDT) at Falcon Field in Colorado Springs.