April 23, 2011
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Air Force scored in six of eight innings and starter Sean Carley frustrated San Diego State's offense most of the afternoon as the Falcons defeated the Aztecs, 14-7, Saturday at Falcon Field in Colorado Springs. By capturing the rubber game of the three-game series the cadets improved to 16-24 overall and 2-8 in the Mountain West Conference.
It marked the first time that SDSU had dropped a series to Air Force since the 2002 campaign when it lost all three contests on the Falcons' home field. The loss was the eighth in the last nine contests for the Aztecs who saw their record fall to 12-28 (6-9 MWC).
For the ninth straight game San Diego saw its opponent score in the opening inning as Air Force tallied an unearned run off Aztec starter Bryan Crabb in the bottom of the first. The sophomore right-hander would eventually toss 4.2 innings and give up seven runs on seven hits with a pair of walks and two strikeouts. Although he took the loss to fall to 1-5, Crabb was not alone in being victimized by Falcon hitters as all five Aztec pitchers in the contest allowed at least one run.
SDSU did tie the game in its half of the second on back-to-back doubles by Jomel Torres and Chris Wilson. But from there Carley limited the Aztecs' offensive production over the next six innings en route to recording the win to even his ledger at 3-3.
Air Force regained the lead in its half of the second with two runs and added another in the fourth to make it a 4-1 contest. Carley was then let down by his defense in the top of the fifth as consecutive errors by second baseman Blair Roberts led to a pair of unearned runs that scored on Brandon Meredith's two-out single through the left side.
That made it a 4-3 game, but just when it looked like the Aztecs were back in it the Falcons scored five times in the bottom of the inning to solidify their advantage. Those runs came on three hits, two walks and a hit batter.
The teams traded runs in the seventh before the home side put the contest away with four in the bottom of the eighth to make the score 14-4.
With Carley out of the game in the ninth in favor of reliever Alex Baker, the Aztecs rallied for three consolation runs courtesy of an RBI single by Evan Potter and two-run base bit by Torres. Stephen Colangelo was then brought in from the bullpen and he got a called third strike on Chris Wilsons for the final out of the game.
Torres (2 RBI, run), Wilson (RBI) and Cody Smith (run) finished the afternoon with two hits apiece including a double. Dillon Bryant also had a double and a walk in two plate appearances off the bench and scored twice.
San Diego State now returns home to face UC Riverside on Tuesday, April 26, at 6:00 p.m. (PT) at Tony Gwynn Stadium.