May 10, 2008
PROVO, Utah - San Diego State scored five runs in the third inning and got a solid starting effort from sophomore Nate Solow to capture the rubber match of its three-game weekend series at Brigham Young by the score of 9-5. It was the final Mountain West Conference contest of the season for the Aztecs, who are a game behind New Mexico for second place in the league standings with the Lobos still having five MWC contests remaining.
With the victory, SDSU finished its conference campaign with a mark of 16-8 and ended the weekend with an overall ledger of 30-22. The loss was the sixth in the last seven outing for the Cougars, who dropped to 20-33 overall and 8-13 in league play.
Brigham Young grabbed the first lead of the game, scoring an unearned run in the bottom of the first aided by a pair of Aztec errors and an RBI single by Kent Walton.
SDSU's five-run rally in the third began with a double to right by Cory Vaughn and an RBI single by Erik Castro. After a sacrifice bun by Brett Tanos, Pat Colwell was hit by pitch to put runners on first and second. Brandon Decker then delivered an RBI single to right to give the Aztecs a lead they would not relinquish. In the process, Decker extended his team-best hitting streak to 20 games.
Troy Hanzawa then delivered a two-run double to score Colwell and Decker and give SDSU a 4-1 advantage. It was to be the first of Hanzawa's three doubles on the afternoon as he tied the Aztec mark for doubles in a game held by several former players. A ground out by Nick Romero brought home Hanzawa for the fifth run of the inning.
The Cougars chipped away at San Diego State's lead with two runs in the bottom of the inning and one in the fourth to make it a 5-4 contest before Decker laced a two-run homer to left center field in the top of the fifth, his first of the year, to put the Aztecs up by three. All seven of SDSU's runs to that point were charged to Cougar starter Blake Torgerson, who would be tagged with the loss to fall to 5-4.
Solow, meanwhile, shut out BYU from the fifth through eighth innings, allowing only a pair of singles. He ended his day after eight innings having given up four runs (three earned) while striking out six and walking one. Solow's performance earned him his fourth win in his last five starts as he improved to 5-6 on the season.
The Aztecs added a insurance run in the sixth on an RBI single by Brett Tanos after Vaughn's second double of the contest and put one more on the board in the ninth when Decker's base hit drove home Tanos, who had walked to begin the frame.
Decker (homer, two singles), Hanzawa (three doubles) and Vaughn (two doubles, single) had three hits apiece for SDSU with Decker notching four RBI plus Hanzawa and Vaughn each crossing the plate twice.
Up next for San Diego State is its final home game of 2008 on Tuesday, May 13, when 25th-ranked Long Beach State visits Tony Gwynn Stadium for a 6:00 p.m. start. The Aztecs will then conclude their regular season with a three-game series at ninth-ranked Cal State Fullerton next Thursday through Saturday.