May 9, 2014
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - UNLV scored four times in the seventh inning and used a stellar pitching outing by John Richy as it defeated San Diego State, 6-1, Friday evening at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The victory kept the Rebels (30-18 overall, 17-8 Mountain West) in a tie for first in the league standings with New Mexico. SDSU, meanwhile, saw its record fall to 33-17 (13-12 MW) as it remained in fourth place.
San Diego State scored first as it tallied a run in the opening inning off Richy. Greg Allen began the frame with a single and advanced to second on Tim Zier's sacrifice bunt. After moving to third on a fly ball to right by Ty France, Allen scored on Seby Zavala's infield single to give the Aztecs a 1-0 lead.
After Zavala's single, however, Richy proceeded to retire the next 15 Aztec batters in a row and 22 of the ensuing 23 through the eight inning. Only Zier's two-out single in the sixth broke the streak.
SDSU starter Bubba Derby worked out of trouble in each of the first two innings as the Rebels had a runner at third with one out in each frame, but came up empty. They did tie the contest in the top of the third when Joey Armstrong led off with a fly ball to left that just cleared the outfield wall for his third home run of the season.
The game remained tied until UNLV's four-run outburst in the seventh. The Rebels loaded the bases with two walks and a single with two out before Patrick Armstrong delivered a two-run single to give the visitors a 3-1 lead. That marked the end of the evening for Derby with senior TJ Kendzora taking over on the mound. The senior right-hander, however, allowed back-to-back singles that scored two more runs as UNLV upped its advantage to 5-1.
Derby's final line read 6.2 innings surrendering five runs on eight hits with three walks and 10 strikeouts. He would be tagged with the loss to fall to 6-3.
Richy, meanwhile, was lifted in the top of the ninth after Allen singled to open the inning. Over his eight innings the junior right-hander allowed the one run on four hits with no walks and five strikeouts as he improved to 9-3. Joey Lauria came on in relief and retired the next three batters to close out the contest.
Allen finished the night with a pair of singles for the Aztecs as he accounted for half of his team's hits on the night.
San Diego State and UNLV will continue their weekend series on Saturday, May 10, with a contest schedule to get underway at 6:00 p.m.