March 22, 2016
Colby Schultz's two-out solo home run in the top of the 10th inning was the difference as UC Riverside defeated San Diego State, 3-2, Tuesday evening at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
It was a contest in which each team had plenty of base runners, but could not conjure up a run after the fourth inning until Schultz's 10th-inning game winner. The Highlanders left 12 men on base in the game while the Aztecs stranded 11 runners.
The visitors opened the scoring with a fortuitous run in the top of the first. A two-out high bouncing ball toward first came directly out of the sun and eluded SDSU first baseman Tyler Adkison. Batter Cameron Haskell ended up at third base as the ball rolled into the right field corner, and he scored on an ensuing single by Vince Fernandez to give UCR a 1-0 advantage.
San Diego State (4-14) answered back to grab the lead with two runs of its own in the bottom of the third. A one-out walk to Chase Calabuig, single by Alan Trejo and a walk to Adkison loaded the bases. Spencer Thornton then hit one down the right field line that had the potential to clear the bases, but the ball struck the umpire and remained in the infield. All runners were safe on the infield hit, but only one run scored. Andrew Brown then grounded out to second to bring home the second run, but the rally ended there.
UC Riverside (9-12) was quick to respond and tied the game in the top of the fourth against Aztec reliever Marcus Reyes. Back-to-back one-out singles and a fielder's choice scored a run that knotted the contest at 2-2.
Senior right-hander Brian Heldman was the victim of the 10th-inning long ball, no reward for having come in to start the seventh inning and finishing the contest. He tossed four complete innings allowing the run on two hits with no walks and four strikeouts.
On the night, a total of five Aztec hurlers surrendered 14 hits, but gave up only one walk while recording 11 strikeouts. But it was Heldman who would be the hard-luck loser to fall to 0-2 on the season.
San Diego State will now prepare to resume Mountain West play by hosting league-leading New Mexico for a three-game series later this week. That set gets underway on Thursday, March 24, with a contest slated to get underway at 6:00 p.m.at Tony Gwynn Stadium.