March 5, 2010
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State took advantage of some control problems by visiting Monmouth pitching, but was frustrated early before claiming a 7-0 victory over the Hawks Friday night at Tony Gwynn Stadium. And in what was the season-opening contest for the visitors, a pair of SDSU hurlers limited them to just one hit in the shutout win.
Aztec pitching was the star of the contest as freshman Bryan Crabb (Coronado HS, Coronado, Calif.) had another fine performance, tossing seven innings of one-hit baseball, striking out seven and walking three to even his record at 1-1. Through the first five frames he faced only one batter over the minimum.
Bobby Dombrowski, whose single to right in the third was Monmouth's lone hit, was caught stealing while Jamie Rosenkranz was stranded at second after walking with two out in the fifth. SDSU senior right-hander Kegan Sharp came on to begin the eighth inning and got the final six outs of the game to preserve the win.
After having its scheduled series at George Mason last weekend canceled due to weather, Monmouth (0-1) came west to begin its 2010 campaign and its pitching struggled from the outset of Friday's contest. All told, Hawk pitchers issued a dozen walks and hit four batters.
MU Starter Nick Meyers issued five walks and pair of hits over his four innings of work, but to his credit was able to escape each situation unscathed. SDSU had runners in scoring position in each of those four frames, but three times Meyers got a strikeout for the final out and a routine fly ball on one other occasion to keep the game scoreless. The Aztecs would put men on base in every inning, but would finish the night stranding a total of 15 base runners.
San Diego State (5-6) finally broke in the fifth with the aid of a less-than-consistent Hawks pitching staff. With Joe Loiodice on the mound for MU, SDSU got a single from Mitch Blackburn, walk to Brandon Meredith and a hit by pitch to Jordan Van Hoosier to load the bases. With two out, Monmouth brought on Nick McNamara in relief and he immediately issued back-to back walks to Matt Parker and Josh Chasse to bring in the game's first two runs.
SDSU upped it advantage to 5-0 in the seventh, loading the bases this time on two walks and a hit batter before Blair Moore hit a two-run single up the middle and Blackburn followed with an RBI single to left center.
Blackburn finished the night with four hits, a walk, run scored and an RBI as he accounted for over half of his team's seven hits in the contest. Matt Parker had a second consecutive fine outing, going 1-for-3 with two runs scored and a pair of runs batted in. His RBI single in the eighth and Corey Black's run-scoring ground out later in the inning accounted for the Aztecs final two scores.
San Diego State and Monmouth will conclude their two-game series on Saturday, March 6, with a contest scheduled for a 6:00 p.m. start at Tony Gwynn Stadium.