April 5, 2014
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Brad Haynal drove in six runs with a triple, home run and sacrifice fly and Cody Thompson shut down the Air Force offense over the final 5.2 innings as San Diego State defeated the Falcons, 9-3, Saturday night at Tony Gwynn Stadium. With the victory SDSU improved to 23-8 overall and 9-5 in the Mountain West as it moved to within half a game of second place in the league standings.
With the Aztecs leading 2-1 in the bottom of the third, Ty France doubled and Seby Zavala was hit by pitch to set the table for Haynal to belt a three-run homer over the left field fence to give his team some breathing room at 5-1.
Air Force (6-23, 2-12 MW), however, was not about to give in as it answered with a pair of runs in the next inning to cut the deficit to 5-3. Those runs came against SDSU starter Mike Robards, who would survive that fourth-inning rally. The junior left-hander would end his night after 3.1 innings allowing three runs on five hits with a walk and three strikeouts.
RoBards would give way to reliever Cody Thompson, who ended the Falcon outburst and went on to toss the final 5.2 innings. Over that span he surrendered no runs while scattering four hits, walking one and striking out four. He would eventually be credited with the win to improve his record to 4-1 on the year.
San Diego State clung to its two-run lead until the bottom of the seventh when it added three to its total. Back-to-back-to-back singles by Tim Zier, France and Zavala (RBI) with two out made it a 6-3 game. Haynal then hit a ball to right field that went for a triple allowing France and Zavala to score.
The Aztecs added one more in the eight as Tyler Adkison singled, stole second, advanced to third on a fly ball to right and scored on a wild pitch.
Zier ended his evening with three hits and a pair of runs scored while France (two runs scored), Haynal and Adkison (run scored) tallied two hits apiece for SDSU.
San Diego State and Air Force will wrap up their weekend series on Sunday with a contest scheduled for a 1:05 p.m. start at Tony Gwynn Stadium.