March 10, 2011
SAN DIEGO - Arkansas unleashed 14 hits and took advantage of four San Diego State errors as it defeated the Aztecs, 12-4, Thursday night at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The contest was the first of a four-game series between the teams and saw the 15th-ranked Razorbacks (11-1) win for the fifth straight time.
The visitors opened the scoring with three runs in the top of the second, two of which were unearned thanks to a pair of SDSU fielding errors. The Aztecs, however, responded with three of their own in the bottom half of the frame.
With two outs, San Diego State (2-11) loaded the bases before Cody Smith reached on a fielder's choice when Cody Slader eluded an attempted tag by Arkansas third basmena Dominic Ficociello after he fielded Smith's grounder. A walk to Tim Zier brought home the second run of the inning with a wild pitch allowing SDSU to tie the game at 3-3. That ended the night for Razorback starting pitcher Ryne Stanek as Geoffrey Davenport entered the game in relief.
Arkansas scored twice in the next inning to take a 5-3 lead only to see the Aztecs come back with a run of their own in the bottom of the third on an RBI double by Chris Wilson. That made it a one-run game, but that's as close as the home team would get the remainder of the contest.
Davenport along with fellow reliever Zack Hall shut down the San Diego State offense over the final six innings allowing just a pair of hits. Thanks to a couple of walks, SDSU did put two men on in both he fifth and eighth innings, but was unable to cash in.
Arkansas slowly built on its lead thanks to the hitting of Ficociello (4-for-5, 2 doubles, 4 runs) and Bo Bigham (3-for-4, 3 runs, RBI) as it scored a total of six runs from the fifth through seventh frames and added one more in the ninth.
Chris Wilson led the SDSU offense with a single, double, two walks and an RBI while teammate Cody Slader contributed a pair of singles and scored once.
Davenport, who went 5.1 innings allowing a run on thee hits while striking out seven, would be credited with the win for Arkansas as he improved to 3-1 on the season. Aztec starter Steven Moranda took the loss to fall to 0-2.
The two teams will continue their weekend series with a contest on Friday (March 11) at 6:00 p.m. at Tony Gwynn Stadium.