April 19, 2009
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Rafael Neda's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth brought home the winning run as New Mexico defeated San Diego State, 6-5, in the series finale at Isotopes Park in Albuquerque. That run broke a 5-5 deadlock after SDSU missed a golden opportunity to take control of the contest in the top of the same inning.
With the victory, the Lobos improved to 30-11 overall and 10-5 in the Mountain West Conference as they moved into a three-way tie for first place with Brigham Young and TCU. The Aztecs, meanwhile, fell into fourth in the league standings as their record dropped to 25-14 (9-6 MWC).
San Diego State opened the scoring with a run in the fourth on back-to-back doubles by Erik Castro and Cory Vaughn. Aztecs starting pitcher Tyler Lavigne held the UNM offense at bay over the first five frames, but was touched up for three runs in the bottom of the sixth as the home side grabbed a 3-1 lead.
With Lavigne in danger of suffering his first loss of the season, SDSU came right back to score three runs in the seventh, tying the contest on Brandon Decker's two-run triple and taking a 4-3 lead when Brandon Meredith's single scored Decker.
That one-run advantage was short-lived, however, as the Lobos came back with a run of their own in the bottom of the frame on a two-out RBI single by Ryan Honeycutt off SDSU reliever Andrew Leary.
In the eighth, SDSU re-assumed the lead as it loaded the bases and scored on a sacrifice fly by pinch hitter Guy Willeford. Nate Solow then came on in relief to start the bottom of the eighth, but gave up a home run to Brian Cavazos-Galvez that knotted the score at 5-5.
A major turning point in the game came in the top of the final inning as San Diego State loaded the bases with no outs when Mitch Blackburn was hit by pitch and Meredith and Castro followed with singles. But the Aztecs were unable to cash in as Lobo hurler Daniel Grubbs got a pop out to short before reliever Cole White came on to record a pop out to second and a ground out to third to end the threat.
Unlike SDSU, New Mexico was able to make the most if its situation in the bottom of the ninth. After Solow walked Mike Brownstein to open the frame, the Aztecs brought Addison Reed out of the bullpen to try to preserve the tie.
Reed walked the first batter he faced then balked to put runners on second and third with one out. After an intentional walk to load the bases, Neda lifted a fly ball to right that enabled Brownstein to come home with the winning run.
That run made a winner of White, who improved to 3-0 on the season. Solow was saddled with the loss to see his record fall to 1-4.
SDSU out-hit the Lobos on the day (11-9), but left 11 men on base on the afternoon. Meredith led the SDSU offense with three hits while Castro, Vaughn and Chris Wilson had two apiece.
The Aztecs now take a short break form conference play as they host Long Beach State on Tuesday, April 21, at 6:00 p.m. (PT) at Tony Gwynn Stadium. That game will be televised to a national audience on CBS College Sports TV.