March 10, 2016
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - San Diego state broke open a tight, low-scoring contest by exploding for seven runs in the bottom of the seventh en route to an 11-6 victory over Northwestern Thursday evening at Tony Gwynn Stadium. With the win in what was the first-ever meeting between the schools on the baseball field, the Aztecs improved to 3-10 on the year while the Wildcats lost for the sixth straight outing to fall to 4-10.
Pitching was the name of the game over the first six frames as Aztec redshirt freshman Harrison Pyatt shut out Northwestern on three hits with a walk and six strikeouts.
Northwestern's Dan Kubiuk was almost as effective during that same period as he allowed the Aztecs a lone run on five hits with no walks and a pair of strikeouts.
SDSU got on the board its half of the fourth inning when Alan Trejo led off with a single, advanced to second and third on ground outs, and scored on Jordan Verdon's two-out RBI single.
The Wildcats finally got to Pyatt in the top of the seventh, tying the contest with a pair of singles, sacrifice bunt and grounder to second to make it a 1-1 game.
San Diego State took control of the contest with its seven-run outburst in the seventh, its highest run production in a single inning this season. The Aztecs used three this, three walks and a hit batter against three Wildcat pitchers to turn a 1-1 deadlock into an 8-1 lead.
The big blow in that offensive outburst was freshman Dean Nevarez's first collegiate home run, a two-run shot over the left field fenced to finish off the scoring in the frame. Trejo had a two-run single while Justin Wylie and Chase Calabuig also recorded RBIs in the inning.
After taking the big lead, however, the Aztecs got careless in the top of the eighth, surrendering four unearned runs on three hits, a walk and two critical errors as the visitors crawled back into the game at 8-5.
But SDSU struck for three runs of its own in the bottom of the eighth on a David Hensley single, double by Tyler Adkison and two-RBI single by Wylie plus a run-scoring single by Trejo later in the frame.
Aztec freshman Chris Collins was credited with the win in relief as he improved to 1-0 while Northwestern's Jake Stolley took the loss to even his record at 1-1.
Trejo finished the night with three hits, three RBI and two runs scored while Wylie was also credited with three runs driven in and two scored.
San Diego State and Northwestern will continue their four-game series on Friday, March 11, by playing a doubleheader with the first game set to get underway at 2:00 p.m. at Tony Gwynn Stadium.