April 10, 2009
LAS VEGAS, Nev. - San Diego Scored 12 runs over the middle three innings to support another excellent outing by junior right-hander Stephen Strasberg en route to a 15-4 victory over UNLV at Earl E. Wilson Stadium in Las Vegas Thursday night. Strasburg struck out 13 over his six innings of work as he improved to 7-0 on the season.
Easton Gust, Erik Castro and Ryan O'Sullivan led the Aztec offense on a night that saw the Aztecs improve to 24-11 overall and 7-3 in the Mountain West Conference as they took sole possession of first place in the league standings.
Gust finished with three hits including a triple, walked once, scored four runs and drove in one. Castro contributed a pair of singles and a three-run home with a total of five runs batted in. It was his team-leading seventh homer of the season. O'Sullivan had three hits including a double and scored three times.
SDSU opened the scoring with three runs in the top of the second on an RBI double by Josh Chasse and a run-scoring single by Gust plus another RBI double off the bat of Ryan O'Sullivan. The Rebels (15-17, 4-6 MWC) responded with a run in the bottom of the inning to cut the deficit to 3-1, but that's as close as they would come the rest of the evening.
Two innings later, San Diego State would added three unearned runs to its lead, then send 10 men to the plate one frame later and score five more to make it 11-1 at that point. In that five-run outburst, Pat Colwell and Brandon Decker had back-to-back RBI singles before Castro connected for his home run to center field. With the singles, Decker and Colwell extended their hitting streaks to 13 and 11 games respectively.
Four more runs in the sixth wrapped up the Aztecs' offensive production for the game as they again had 10 men come to bat. Those runs came on a pair of hits, three walks, two hit batters and a wild pitch.
Strasburg, meanwhile, kept the UNLV offense in check despite allowing seven hits. He struck out two hitters in each of the first three innings and retired the side via the strikeout in his sixth and final frame before giving way to reliever Matt Skipper in the seventh.
Skipper, who struck out three over 2.2 innings, got through two innings before giving up three two-out runs in the ninth on a pair of singles, a walk and a double. Kegan Sharp then came on to get the final out of the contest with a strikeout. All told, three SDSU hurlers struck out 17 Rebel batters in the contest.
Offensively, Mitch Blackburn (run scored) and Josh Chasse (double, run scored, two RBI) also each had a pair of hits for the Aztecs. Colwell (three) and Decker ( two) accounted for five of SDSU's runs scored as well.
San Diego State and UNLV will continue their three-game series with a contest on Friday (April 10) at 7:00 p.m. in Las Vegas.