May 4, 2008
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - San Diego State broke open a one-run contest by scoring eight times in the sixth inning en route to a 14-6 win over Air Force Sunday afternoon at Falcon Field in Colorado Springs. The offensive outburst made a winner of starter Nate Solow, who picked up his third victory in his last four starts.
The win allowed the Aztecs to complete a three-game sweep of the Falcons and improve to 28-21 overall and 14-7 in the Mountain West Conference. Air Force, meanwhile, fell to 16-28 (2-15 MWC).
After Solow and Falcon starter Jake Petro kept the contest scoreless through the first three frames, the team's traded runs via the long ball as Chay Derbigny's solo homer in the fourth was answered by Cory Vaughn's shot over the left field fence in the fifth.
The home side grabbed a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth when Nathan Carter's sacrifice fly brought home Daniel Walker, who had singled to lead off the inning. However, that lead did not last long.
Petro, who had allowed just the one run on four hits while striking out five through the first five frames, ran into trouble in the sixth as SDSU would eventually send 12 men to the plate. Brandon Decker and Troy Hanzawa opened the inning with singles and were sacrificed to second and third respectively by Garett Green. After Brandon Glover was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out, a walk to Bubba Ruddy plated Decker to tie the contest at 2-2.
Petro (1-6) then walked Erik Castro and hit Cory Vaughn with a pitch for force in two more runs before being removed from the contest in favor of reliever Brad Pingel. The Falcon left-hander was greeted by a two-run single up the middle by Pat Colwell followed by RBI singles by Decker and Hanzawa to make it an 8-1 game. On came reliever Jason Griggs, who gave up an RBI single by Romero to complete the eight-run inning.
After Air Force got a run back in the bottom of the frame, the Aztecs went on to score twice in both the seventh and eighth innings on two-run homers by Castro and Romero.
Solow, meanwhile, completed his seven innings of work by allowing just three runs, striking out six and walking none. With the win, he improved to 4-6 on the season. Relievers Brandon Pullen, Shane Kaufman and Addison Reed tossed the final two frames to secure the victory.
Decker, Hanzawa and Romero finished the day with three hits apiece to lead SDSU's offensive surge. Romero scored twice with three RBI, Decker scored twice and had an RBI while Hanzawa scored one and drove in one. Erik Castro matched Romero's RBI total while Bubba Ruddy scored three times.
San Diego State will conclude its conference season next weekend with a three-game series at Brigham Young beginning Thursday, May 8, at Larry H. Miller Field in Provo.
The Aztecs are currently in third place in the MWC standings, two games behind TCU and a half-game behind New Mexico. They need one win during the BYU series to secure at least a third-place finish in the final league table.