April 20, 2018
SAN DIEGO - Led by 14 strikeouts by the San Diego State pitching staff and a 3-for-4 day from Dean Nevarez, the SDSU baseball team defeated Fresno State, 3-2, at Tony Gwynn Stadium Friday night. The Aztecs improve to 25-13 and move into second place in the Mountain West at 9-6, while Fresno State falls to 22-15 with an 8-11 MW mark.
Harrison Pyatt continued his red-hot April performance, posting five shutout innings with only three hits allowed while striking out a career-high eight. After posting a hitless first and second inning, Pyatt scattered three Bulldog hits over the next three innings, never allowing much of a scoring opportunity until loading the bases with one out in the fifth. Pyatt maneuvered his way out of the jam, however, logging his seventh and eighth strikeouts of the night against Fresno State's Zach Ashford and Nolan Dempsey, who hit No. 1 and No. 2 in the Bulldog lineup, respectively.
The Aztecs broke a scoreless tie on the first pitch of the bottom of the sixth, as Dean Nevarez sent a no-doubter over the wall in left field for his fourth home run of the season.
Fresno State responded with a pair of runs in the sixth, using a pair of errors on sacrifice bunt attempts to take a 2-1 lead. The Aztecs responded with its own pair of runs in the home half of the inning, as Nevarez logged an RBI single to score Matt Rudick before Julian Escobedo supplied the Aztecs with a 3-2 lead after driving in Jordan Verdon on an RBI single of his own in the next at-bat.
SDSU then turned to Casey Schmitt, who retired six of the seven batters he faced in the eighth and ninth innings with four strikeouts to earn his fifth save of the season.
NOTES
- SDSU takes a lead in the all-time series, 99-98. Should the Aztecs win another game in the series, Fresno State would be the fourth team the Aztecs have beaten 100 times, joining New Mexico (113 wins), Air Force (108 wins) and Utah (102 wins).
- The Aztecs recorded its 10th game of the season with 10 or more strikeouts, having struck out 14 Bulldog hitters Friday night.
- SDSU has won three of its last four meetings against Fresno State.
- SDSU won its 72nd consecutive game when leading after eight innings.
- Chase Calabuig reached base in his 41st consecutive home game after going 0-for-2 with a walk.
- Over his last three starts, Harrison Pyatt owns a 1.06 ERA, having allowed just two earned runs and nine hits over 17 innings pitched. Pyatt has also struck out 17 batters and held opposing hitters to a .153 opponent batting average over that span.
- After earning his fifth save of the season, Casey Schmitt recorded his eighth consecutive scoreless appearance, lowered his season ERA to a minuscule 0.48, and extended his consecutive inning streak without allowing an earned run to 12.2. Schmitt's 0.48 ERA is the lowest ERA by an Aztec (minimum 10 IP) through the first 38 games of the season since joining the Mountain West in 2000.
- Dean Nevarez tied his season-highs in hits, with three, and RBIs, with two.
- After going 2-for-4 Friday, Julian Escobedo improved his Mountain West batting average to a team-best .423.
UP NEXT
SDSU RHP Garrett Hill (6-1, 2.47 ERA) will square off against Fresno State's Edgar Gonzalez (5-2, 3.30 ERA) in a Saturday night contest at Tony Gwynn Stadium scheduled for 6:00 p.m.