April 25, 2009
SAN DIEGO - TCU scored three runs in the top of the eighth to take its first lead of the afternoon and then held on for an 8-7 victory over San Diego State Saturday afternoon at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The win improved the 16th-ranked Horned Frogs to 26-12 overall and 7-4 in the Mountain West Conference. The No. 19 Aztecs, meanwhile, dropped to 28-16 and 10-7 in league play.
After the visitors opened the game with a run in the top of the first, SDSU came back to put four on the board in the bottom of the inning. A walk to Brandon Meredith and a wild pitch set the stage for an RBI single by Erik Castro. Cory Vaughn's ensuing single put runners on first and third before Mitch Blackburn's double made it a 2-1 Aztec lead. Freshman Jomel Torres then tripled to right center, bringing home both Vaughn and Blackburn to make it 4-1.
The Horned Frogs closed to within a run in the third on a two-run homer by Matt Carpenter, but the Aztecs responded with a run in the bottom of the same inning on a double by Castro and RBI single by Vaughn.
After the visitors tied the game at 5-5 with single runs in both the fourth and fifth frames, San Diego State re-took the lead in the bottom of the fifth as Blackburn's single was followed by Jomel Torres' first collegiate home run to give SDSU a 7-5 advantage.
TCU, however, was able to go ahead with its three-run eighth inning that came against a trio of SDSU pitchers. After Jason Coats opened with a single off Kegan Sharp, pinch hitter Matt Curry was walked by reliever Craig Rasmussen. That brought Andrew Leary out of the Aztec bullpen to face Aaron Schultz, who laid down a sacrifice bunt to move both runners over.
Cory Steglich then hit an infield single to score Coats and put runners on first and third. Then came the defining moment of the inning as Leary threw the ball past Aztec first baseman Brandon Meredith on a pickoff attempt. Pinch runner Ben Carruthers scored from third on the play with Steglich moving around to third himself. The latter scored when the next batter, Taylor Featherston, hit a chopper to short.
TCU pitcher Taylor Cragin, who had given up Torres' home run, was the main beneficiary of his team's rally as he picked up the win to improve to 4-0. Eric Marshall came on to get the final out in the bottom of the eighth and retired the side in order in the ninth to record his fifth save of the season. SDSU's Leary would be tagged with the loss to even his record at 2-2.
For San Diego State, Vaughn finished the day with three hits and a run scored while Torres had the triple and homer to account for four RBI. Erik Castro and Mitch Blackburn also contributed two hits apiece with each recording a single and double.
With BYU and New Mexico's Saturday contest being canceled due to rain, the Cougars and Lobos currently share first place in the MWC standing at 11-7. TCU's win moved it into third place while SDSU dropped into fourth.
TCU and San Diego State conclude their three-game weekend series on Sunday with a contest scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. (PT) start at Tony Gwynn Stadium.