May 19, 2016
San Diego State got a complete-game shutout pitching performance from junior Dominic Purpura and scored four early runs as it defeated San Jose State, 5-0, in the opener of their three-game series with the Spartans Thursday night at Municipal Stadium in San Jose.
With the victory, the Aztecs improved to 18-35 overall and 10-18 in the Mountain West. More importantly, with Air Force losing to New Mexico earlier in the day, SDSU now finds itself just one game out of fifth place in the conference standings. A finish higher that sixth would mean avoiding the play-in game at next week's Mountain West Tournament.
The complete game effort was the second in a row for Purpura and also his third victory in his last three outings as he improved to 4-2 on the season while lowering his earned run average to 3.18. In tossing the complete game, he scattered six hits while walking none and striking out one. Only two Spartans advanced as far as second base and the Aztec lefty retired nine of the final 10 batters he faced to close out the contest.
San Diego State opened the scoring in the top of the second inning as Tyler Adkison led off with a single to center and advanced to second on Spencer Thornton's grounder back to the pitcher. David Hensley then brought Adkison home with an RBI single to right to give the visitors a 1-0 advantage.
They added three runs to their lead in the next inning courtesy of five hits and a [pair of walks. A base on balls to Denz'l Chapman and single by Justin Wylie were followed by a sacrifice bunt from Chas Calabuig to put runners at second and third with one out. Alan Trejo's single plated Chapman before an infield hit by Adkison loaded the bases. A walk to Thornton brought in the second run of the inning and Hensley's single to right scored another as San Diego State increased its lead to 4-0.
SDSU's first four runs came against San Jose State starter Matt Brown, who tossed six innings surrendering eight hits with two walks and three strikeouts. He would be charged with loss to fall to 2-7 and the Spartans record fell to 16-37 (6-22 MW).
The Aztecs added one more run to their final total in the top of the ninth when a single up the middle by Wylie scored Jordan Verdon, who had led off the frame with a single.
Adkison led the Aztec offense on the night, finished with three hits including a double and a run scored. Hensley (two RBI) and Wylie (RBI, run scored) both ended the evening with a pair of singles apiece.
San Diego State and San Jose State will play the second game of their series on Friday (May 20) beginning at 6:00 p.m. (PT) at Municipal Stadium.