April 9, 2011
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State scored seven runs on one hit in the third inning and went on to an 11-8 win over Utah in the second game of their three-game series Saturday afternoon. The win improved the Aztecs to 5-3 in Mountain West Conference play (11-20 overall) and into a three-way tie for second place one game behind league leader TCU. Utah, meanwhile, saw its record drop to 12-12 (5-4 MWC).
San Diego State struck early on Saturday with a run in the first inning as Jomel Torres' two-out double to right scored Tim Zier, who had opened the contest with a double down the left field line.
Two innings later the Utes came undone as the Aztecs scored seven times to take an 8-0 lead. SDSU got just one hit in the frame, but were aided by five walks and three Utah errors with nine men coming to the plate before the first out was recorded.
Zier began the frame by reaching on a fielding error by the shortstop with walks to Pat Colwell and Brandon Meredith loading the bases. Another base on ball to Torres brought home the first run of the inning. It was also the last action of the game for Utah starter Joe Pond, who would be tagged with the loss to fall to 3-4.
Ute reliever Josh Chapman fared little better as he uncorked a wild pitch to bring home Colwell before walking Chris Wilson to re-load the bases. Brad Haynal followed with grounder to third base, but Trey Nielsen's throw home hit Meredith trying to score for the second error of the inning to make it 4-0.
Cody Slader's then hit ground ball to first that went under the glove of C.J. Cron for an error and allowed two runs to score. Another walk to Cody Smith loaded the bases again and a free pass to Evan Potter, the ninth batter of the inning, made it 7-0. Zier added a sacrifice fly to right to drive home the seventh run of the frame.
Much to Utah's credit, the nightmare inning did not thwart their comeback efforts as they scored six runs over the fifth and sixth innings to get within two runs at 8-6. SDSU freshman starter Cole Swanson, who had held the Utes in check over the first four frames, was touched up for the six runs before giving way to Mitch Bluman, the first of four SDSU relievers on the day. Swanson's overall effort (5.1 innings, 6 runs, 6 hits, 3 BB, 5 K) would be enough to earn him the victory as he improved to 2-1 on the year.
San Diego State got some breathing room by adding three runs to its total in the bottom of the seventh. A double by Haynal and walk to Slader were followed by a two-run triple to center off the bat of Smith, who would also score on Potter's single up the middle to make it an 11-6 game.
Utah would put up single markers in both the eighth and ninth innings, but sophomore right-hander Bryan Crabb closed out the game in the ninth, getting the final two outs with the potential tying run at the plate.
Both Zier and Cowell ended the afternoon with two hits apiece for the Aztecs with the threesome of Jomel Torres, Cody Smith and Evan Potter accounting for two RBI each.
Utah and San Diego State will close out their weekend series with a contest on Sunday (April) scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. start at Tony Gwynn Stadium.