May 9, 2008
PROVO, Utah - San Diego State fell behind early and was unable to catch up as it dropped a 10-4 decision at Brigham Young Friday night at Larry H. Miller Field in Provo. The loss ended a four-game winning streak for the Aztecs, who fell to 29-22 overall and 15-8 in the Mountain West Conference. It dropped SDSU a game behind New Mexico and three back in the loss column in the battle for the No. 2 seed at the upcoming MWC Tournament. BYU, meanwhile, ended a five-game losing streak while improving to 20-32 (8-12 MWC).
After opening the scoring with a single run in the first inning, the Cougars sent nine men to the plate in the second, scoring five times off SDSU right-hander James McLaughlin, who was making just his third start of the season. Those runs came on a home run, three singles and a pair of walks as the Aztec starter was unable to record an out in the frame. It was enough to hand McLaughlin his first loss of the season as his record fell to 3-1.
Facing a 6-0 deficit, San Diego State crawled back into t he contest with a pair of runs in the fourth. Brandon Decker and Troy Hanzawa walked and singled respectively with one out, then scored on an RBI single by Nick Romero and a ground out by Garett Green.
SDSU added a run in the fifth as Mike Willeford led off with a walk, advanced to second on a ground out by Pat Colwell and scored on a base hit by Hanzawa. That closed the gap to 6-3, but it was as close as the Aztecs would get the remainder of the evening.
San Diego State junior J.R. Murphy, who had come on in relief of McLaughlin in the second, tossed four scoreless innings before giving up a two-run homer to Sean McNaughton in the sixth. Jon Berger was then called in from the bullpen, but he had little success, allowing two singles and a double to the three hitters he faced. He was charged with the two additional runs in the frame as BYU upped its lead to 10-3.
At this point, SDSU brought on senior lefty Brandon Pullen with a runner on second and no outs. Pullen proceeded to shut the Cougars out the rest of the way. Over the final three frames he faced the minimum nine batters. Although he allowed a single to Dan Vargas to lead off the eighth, he immediately picked off the BYU second baseman.
When the Aztecs scored a run on singles by Cory Vaughn, Mike Willeford and Brandon Decker in the top of the seventh, it spelled the end of the night for Cougar starter Jake Wortham. The BYU lefty ended up going 6.1 innings and allowing four runs on seven hits with four walks and a pair of strikeouts as he picked up the win to even his record at 4-4.
Hanzawa and Vaughn were the lone Aztecs to record more than one hit in the contest. The former had a pair of singles with an RBI and run scored while the latter had a single, double and scored once.
SDSU and BYU will play the rubber game of their three game series on Saturday, May 10, at 1:00 p.m. (MDT). The Aztecs will then return home for their final home contest of the 2008 campaign against 25th-ranked Long Beach State on Tuesday at Tony Gwynn Stadium.