April 27, 2018
SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego State baseball team logged its second shutout over its last three games to defeat UNLV, 1-0, in a series-opening contest at Tony Gwynn Stadium Friday night. SDSU grows its lead over UNLV to a game-and-a-half in the Mountain West standings and improves to 28-14 (11-8 MW), while UNLV drops to 29-15 (10-9 MW).
Harrison Pyatt continued his impressive month of April, throwing six shutout innings and recording a career-high nine strikeouts while surrendering just three hits. Pyatt started his outing not allowing a hit to each of the first nine batters he faced and only ran into a pair of small jams, as a two-out double by Max Smith in the fourth gave UNLV a pair of runners in scoring position before Pyatt induced a frame-ending groundout against UNLV's Grant Robbins.
In the sixth, Pyatt allowed a leadoff double to Kyle Isbel to give UNLV a chance at tying the game. Pyatt ended his outing by stranding Isbel, striking out each of the next three batters to maintain SDSU's 1-0 lead.
SDSU's lone run came in the bottom of the second, as Casey Schmitt scored Julian Escobedo on a hard-hit RBI double that fell out of Grant Robbins' glove on a full-extension diving catch attempt in the left centerfield gap.
Schmitt proved to play a pivotal role on the mound as well, posting 2.1 innings of hitless relief to earn his sixth save of the season. Schmitt entered his outing with runners at the corners and after walking Dillon Johnson to load the bases, Schmitt worked his way around UNLV's scoring threat, forcing an inning-ending groundout to preserve the Aztecs 1-0 lead. Schmitt capped the top of the eighth with back-to-back strikeouts before allowing just one base runner in the ninth to complete the seven-out save.
Escobedo and Chase Calabuig led the Aztec lineup with multi-hit performances, going 2-for-4 and 2-for-3, respectively.
NOTES
- The San Diego State baseball team has allowed just one run over its last three games, marking the first time since April 22-23, 2005 vs. Air Force that the Aztecs have held its opponents to one run over a three-game span.
- SDSU has posted two shutouts in its last three games, marking the first time SDSU has thrown two shutouts within three games since pitching back-to-back shutouts against Nevada and CSUN on March 9 and March 11, 2014, respectively.
- SDSU has outscored its opponents 27-1 over its last three games.
- SDSU has scored 112 runs in its last 10 games against UNLV, good for an 11.2 runs per game average.
- Over his last four starts, Harrison Pyatt owns a 0.78 ERA over 23 innings pitched with 26 strikeouts, 12 hits allowed, and a .150 opponent batting average. Over that span, Pyatt lowered his season ERA from 4.78 to 3.44.
- San Diego State won its 75th consecutive game when leading after eight innings.
- Four of SDSU's six hits on Friday night came with two outs.
- SDSU improves to 11-4 in one-run games this season.
- Friday night marked as SDSU's first 1-0 win since defeating Fresno State 1-0 on March 30, 2014.
- Chase Calabuig reached base in his 44th consecutive home game, going 2-for-4 with a pair of singles. Calabuig's streak stands as the longest in Tony Gwynn Stadium history (since 1997).
- Chase Calabuig posted his team-leading 19th multi-hit game of the season.
- Despite having won each of its last four series against UNLV, the Aztecs snapped a four-game losing streak in series openers against UNLV with Friday night's win. SDSU is 9-4 in its last 13 games against UNLV.
- Casey Schmitt recorded his sixth save of the season and lowered his season ERA to 0.43, the lowest by an Aztec (minimum 10 IP) since joining the Mountain West in 2000. On the season, Schmitt has allowed just one earned run over 21 innings pitched and the freshman currently rides a streak of 15 consecutive innings and 10 consecutive appearances without allowing an earned run. Over that streak, Schmitt has allowed just eight hits and on the season, Schmitt has not allowed more than two hits in any single outing this year.
- SDSU has not committed an error in its third consecutive game, marking the longest errorless streak of the season.
- SDSU shutout UNLV for the first time since defeating the Rebels, 6-0, on May 21, 2011.
- UNLV was shut out for the second time in 2018 and the fifth time over the last two seasons.
UP NEXT
RHP Garrett Hill (6-2, 2.53 ERA) will take the ball for SDSU as the Aztecs go for the series win against UNLV's RHP Chase Maddux (3-5, 3.61 ERA). First pitch from Tony Gwynn Stadium is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. with XTRA 1360 picking up tomorrow's broadcast.