May 1, 2009
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - San Diego State got another solid outing from junior right-hander Stephen Strasburg and received offensive contributions from throughout the lineup in a 5-0 win at Santa Clara Friday evening. The game was played before a stadium-record crowd of 1,496 fans.
With the victory, the Aztecs ended a short two-game losing streak as they improved to 29-17. The Broncos, meanwhile, lost their eighth straight to fall to 15-26 on the year.
Strasburg (10-0) contributed eight innings of work in what would become SDSU's fifth shutout of the 2009 campaign. Along the way he gave up three hits and a pair of walks while striking out 12. After allowing a leadoff single in the third and getting that runner with a double play, he allowed only one base runner through the end of the eighth inning on an infield single in the sixth.
After putting two men on in both the first and second innings and coming up empty, San Diego State finally broke into the scoring column in the top of the third as it loaded the bases with no outs on walks to Brandon Decker and Erik Castro sandwiched around a single by Brandon Meredith. Back-to-back RBI singles by Mitch Blackburn and Jomel Torres later in the frame staked SDSU to a 2-0 lead.
The Aztecs padded their advantage with a three-run outburst in the fifth that began with a single by Castro and a run-scoring double to left center off the bat of Cory Vaughn. Blackburn then notched his second RBI of the night with a single to right that scored Vaughn to make it 4-0. Blackburn, who had advanced to second on the throw home when Vaughn scored, went to third on a ground out to first by Torres and then scored on Easton Gust's sacrifice fly to deep center.
All five SDSU runs came off Bronco starter Nate Garcia, who took the loss to see his record fall to 6-4.
Castro finished the evening with three hits and a pair of walks as he reached safely in each of his five plate appearances. Meredith, Blackburn and Torres had two singles apiece as the Aztecs' total of 12 included only one extra-base knock (Vaughn's double).
San Diego State and Santa Clara continue their weekend non-conference series with a doubleheader on Saturday (May 2) at the Broncos' Stephen Schott Stadium with the first game scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m. (PT).