SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State baseball team came out victorious with a 9-3 win against No. NR/25 UC Irvine on Tuesday night at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
Brian Leonhardt led the Aztecs with a 3-for-4 performance including four RBIs. Casey O'Sullivan (1-0) earned the win on the mound for SDSU, pitching two innings of one-hit relief with four strikeouts.
The Aztecs (3-1) scored three in the first, starting with a Julian Escobedo RBI single. Chad Bible and Brian Leonhardt followed suit, sending Angelo Armenta and Escobedo home to give SDSU a 3-0 lead over the Anteaters (2-2).
O'Sullivan came into the game with no outs and the bases loaded in the top of the fifth a proceeded to strikeout the first two batters he faced before erasing the threat with a 6-4 fielder's choice.
With the momentum shifted, SDSU increased their lead 6-2 in the bottom of the fifth highlighted by Leonhardt's 2-RBI double, marking his second two-bagger of the game. Ryan Orr followed, recording a 2-RBI single allowing Leonhardt and Bible to increase the Aztecs lead to 8-2.
Matt Rudick and Mike Jarvis each recorded two hits, while Jarvis, Julian Escobedo, and Bible all added an RBI apiece.
Starter Justin Goossen-Brown pitched three hitless innings and faced the minimum through his tsart. UC Irvine's Alonzo Garcia (1-1) was handed the loss after allowing three runs on three hits with one walk over two innings pitched.
Team Notes
· San Diego State has opened the year at 3-1 for the second consecutive season
· SDSU struck out 12 or more batters for the fourth consecutive game, marking the first time since at least 2000 SDSU has done so
· SDSU improved to 4-2 in its last six home games against UC Irvine.
· SDSU improved to 97-45 against California programs since the start of the 2014 season.
· SDSU improved to 41-5 in their last 46 games when scoring five or more runs
· SDSU won its fourth consecutive midweek contest dating back to last season
· SDSU improves to 24-8 against the Big West since the start of the 2017 season and has won its fourth-straight against Big West members
· SDSU scored six or more runs in each of the first four games of the season since doing so in 2008
· SDSU's seven-run margin of victory over UC Irvine is its largest since beating the Anteaters 18-2 on April 23, 2013
Player Notes
Brian Leonhardt
Recorded his third multi-hit game and second multi-RBI of the season with a season-best 3-for-4 performance with 4 RBIs… Second on the team with 7 RBIs on the season.
Julian Escobedo
Recorded an RBI in his fourth consecutive game, making a career-long RBI streak… Extended his on-base streak to 28-games.
Casey O'Sullivan
Upped his strikeout total to a Mountain West-best 12… 12 of his 14 recorded outs have come via strikeout... Earned the second win of his career.
Head coach Mark Martinez
"This is a good win for us. These Tuesday games are very important to our program and UC Irvine has a great program. Once again our pitching carried us tonight with our 12 strikeouts. Brian Leonhardt is on fire with 4 RBIs today. Biggest moment of the game was with bases loaded and no outs but we found a way to get out of it. It was a great job by our bullpen coming in and saving the day."
UP NEXT
SDSU is set to play in the Tony Gwynn Legacy this weekend, beginning with a game against Utah on Friday at 6:00 p.m. The game can be watched on the Mountain West Network.
Baseball Shines in 9-3 Win Over No. NR/25 UC Irvine
