May 3, 2009
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - San Diego State got a solid pitching performance from junior Tyler Lavigne and just enough offense to carry it to a 4-3 victory over Santa Clara Sunday afternoon at Stephen Schott Stadium. With the win, SDSU captured its third contest in the four-game weekend series and improved to 31-18, matching its win total of last season.
After breaking a nine-game slide with a win in the nightcap of Saturday's twin bill, the Broncos lost for the 10th time in their last 11 outings to drop to 16-28.
Lavigne, who moved his season record to 5-1, went seven strong innings, allowing three runs on five hits with a trio of walks and four strikeouts. Other than the third inning in which the hosts scored twice, Lavigne did not allow a runner to reach second base until a leadoff double in the eighth.
Just as it did in both games on Saturday, San Diego State scored in the opening inning as singles by Brandon Decker and Brandon Meredith set the table for Erik Castro's RBI hit that gave SDSU the early 1-0 lead.
Santa Clara came back in the bottom of the third to take the lead with a pair of runs on a bunt single, sacrifice bunt, single to right and a two-out infield single.
The Aztecs reclaimed the lead for good one inning later as consecutive singles by Castro, Cory Vaughn and Mitch Blackburn loaded the bases. Ensuing back-to-back ground outs by Chris Wilson and Guy Willeford brought home Castro and Vaughn to give the visitors a 3-2 lead.
San Diego State added its fourth run on Meredith's solo home run in the top of the eighth. It was the freshman's fifth of the 2009 season and second during the weekend series.
All four of the Aztecs' runs came off Santa Clara starter Steve Kalush, who pitched 7.2 innings and allowed nine hits with no walks and three strikeouts. Despite a fine effort and a performance that belied his 8.20 earned run average entering the contest, Kalush would be tagged with the loss to fall to 1-5.
In the bottom of the eighth, a leadoff double by Kevin Madden spelled an end to Lavigne's afternoon. With Andrew Leary on the mound for SDSU, John Karcich singled through the right side before a high chopper back to the mound scored Madden to make it a 4-3 contest. After a line out to right, Aztec closer Addison Reed came on to get Chris Morton to fly out to left to end the threat.
Reed then returned in the ninth to secure the victory, but not before the Broncos put two runners on with one out. The sophomore right-hander then struck out Matt Long and Madden to record his nation-leading 16th save of the year. Reed's save total is one shy of the SDSU record of 17 set by Royce Ring during the 2003 campaign and his two-year total of 20 is three off Ring's Aztec career mark.
For SDSU, Meredith (HR, run, RBI), Castro (RBI), Vaughn (run) and Blackburn (double, RBI) each reached safely twice on the afternoon to account for eight of the team's 10 hits in the contest.
Up next for San Diego State is a return to Mountain West Conference play as it hosts Air Force for a three-game series beginning Friday, May 8, at 6:00 p.m. at Tony Gwynn Stadium.