March 31, 2010
SAN DIEGO - Stony Brook scored four unearned runs in the top of the 14th inning Tuesday night and defeated San Diego State, 18-14, in a game that lasted just under six hours. With both teams playing their fifth game in five days, pitching staffs were thin and that led to an offensive battle for most of the evening.
As they did the previous evening, the Seawolves came out swinging and put six runs on the board over the first and second innings. Not to be outdone, the Aztecs answered back with six of their own in the bottom of the second and the scoring was just beginning.
Stony Brook (8-11) never trailed over the first five innings until SDSU (10-15) took a 12-11 lead with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth. As was customary throughout the contest, the visitors came right back with three runs in the seventh and the Aztec got two in the eighth to even the score at 14-14.
In a strange turn of events, pitching took over from that point on as both bullpens recorded five consecutive scoreless innings.
For the Seawolves, Willie Carmona, who began the game in left field, came on with one out in the eighth and proved to be the most effective pitcher on the night as he shut out the Aztecs over the final 6.2 innings. He allowed just two hits with a pair of walks and four strikeouts as he would pick up the win to improve to 2-0.
For San Diego State, the combination of relievers Ryan Wynveen, John Pecoraro and Robert Alcala kept Stony Brook off the board from the seventh inning on. That is, until the top of the 14th.
With Alcala on the mound for his second inning of work, a leadoff single by Chad Marshall and sacrifice bunt put a runner on second with one out. Carmona then lifted a fly ball to right field that was misplayed for a two-base error, forcing the Aztecs to intentionally walk Sal Intagliata to load the bases.
The next hitter, Travis Jankowski, failed to connect on a suicide squeeze attempt, but Marshall scored from third when Alcala missed the tag at the plate. After Janksowski struck out, John Adornetto's grounder to third was booted allowing Carmona to score the second run of the inning. That was followed by a two-run double to left by Rob Dyer that brought home the final two runs. The four unearned runs made a loser of Alcala who took the loss in his first decision of the season.
Mitch Blackburn led SDSU's offense with four hits, two runs scored and two RBI while Brandon Decker (three RBI) and Jomel Torres (two RBI, one run) finished the evening with two hits apiece.
San Diego State will have just one day to rest as they travel to Fort Worth to begin a three-game Mountain West Conference series against 11th-ranked TCU that gets underway on Thursday, April 1, at 6:30 p.m. (MT).