May 22, 2009
FORT WORTH, Texas - A pair of Utah pitchers limited San Diego State to five hits Thursday evening as the Utes defeated SDSU, 4-1, at the Mountain West Conference Tournament in Fort Worth, Texas. The result forces another contest between the two teams on Saturday to determine the tourney champion and recipient of the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Both teams opened the game with their starting pitchers from Tuesday's action on the mound with Tyler Lavigne throwing for the Aztecs (40-20) and Jordan Whatcott going for the Utes (25-29).
Utah was the first to get on the scoreboard as it took advantage of an opportunity in the top of the third to strike for a pair of runs. Cooper Blanc and Michael Beltran were hit by pitch to start the inning and were sacrificed to second and third respectively. Tyler Yagi's ensuing single brought both runners home for the 2-0 lead.
That would be all the scoring that the Utes would need as Whatcott allowed just a single run on three hits over his six innings of work. Erik Castro's double, a wild pitch and Cory Vaughn's ground out produced SDSU's only run in the fourth inning. Whatcott's performance was enough to earn him the win as he improved to 5-2 on the season.
Lavigne finished his evening after seven innings giving up the two runs on four hits with four strikeouts. It was enough to make him the hard luck loser as his record dropped to 7-2.
The Utes would add a pair of runs over the final two frames on an RBI single by Austin Jones in the eighth and Corey Shimada's solo homer in the ninth, both off SDSU reliever Andrew Leary.
Brian Budrow, the Utes' usual number-one starter, came on to throw the final three innings to pick up his first save of the year.
Pat Colwell was the lone Aztec with more than one hit as he tallied a pair of singles while Castro had the double and scored his team's lone run.
San Diego State and Utah will meet at 1:00 p.m. (CDT) tomorrow (May 23) at Lupton Stadium to determine the 2009 Mountain West Conference champion.