May 8, 2016
FRESNO, Calif. - San Diego State a was unable to overcome a couple of early long balls by Fresno State as it dropped a 4-3 decision to the Bulldogs in the teams' series finale on Sunday at Beiden Field in Fresno.
The win allowed FSU to improve to 32-17 overall and 19-8 in the Mountain West as it moved to within a game of league leader New Mexico.
SDSU, meanwhile saw its record drop to 14-32 in all games and 6-16 in conference action as it fell three games behind in the loss column to Air Force, who it hosts for five games next weekend.
On Sunday, Fresno State jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead on a solo home run by Scot Silva to open of the bottom of the first inning.
The Aztecs responded by tying the contest at 1-1 with a run of their own in the top of the second. Jordan Verdon's sacrifice fly scored Tyler Adkison, who had singled, advanced to second on a ground out and went to third on a Bulldog throwing error.
The deadlock lasted just one inning, however, as FSU struck for three in its half of the third. After a single and triple made it a 2-1 game, Aaron Arruda sent a ball over the left field fence to give the home side a 4-1 advantage.
The Bulldogs' four runs in the contest were charged to Aztec starter Marcus Reyes, who would finish his day after 2.1 innings having allowed the runs on four hits and a pair walks while striking out two. The junior lefty would be charged with the loss to hall to 1-5 on the year.
San Diego State got back into the contest with single runs in both the fourth and eighth innings.
In the fourth, Verdon and Andrew Brown singled and stole third and second respectively before Verdon scored on a passed ball.
In the top of the eighth, singles by Alan Trejo and Adkison set the stage for an RBI single to center by Spencer Thornton to make it a 4-3 contest.
But that's as close as the Aztecs would get as Rickey Ramirez, despite allowing a walk and two singles in the ninth, closed out the game to pick up his fourth save. Tim Borst, who tossed the middle 2.2 innings allowing no runners while striking out two, got the win to up his record to 3-2.
SDSU out-hit Fresno State 11-6 in the game led by three singles by Brown and two hits by Adkison.
The Aztecs will now return home where they will host Air Force next weekend. A total of five game results will be on the line as the teams complete a suspended contest and play a postponed game from SDSU's trip to Colorado Springs in mid-March in addition to the schedule three-game series.