SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State baseball team took a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the sixth with a four-run inning and never looked back, clinching the series with an 8-5 victory over Nevada Saturday night at Tony Gwynn Stadium. SDSU and Nevada both now sit at 7-6 on the year, while SDSU improves to 2-1 in conference play while Nevada falls to 0-2.
Harrison Pyatt recorded a season-high seven strikeouts in 5.1 innings of work while only allowing two hits. Christian Winston took over the mound, contributing two strikeouts in 1.1 innings. Casey O'Sullivan would earn his first save of the season, closing out the remaining 2.1 innings of shutout hitless reliefs with three strikeouts.
Matt Rudick cleared the bases with a 3-RBI double, securing a 6-4 lead over the Wolfpack. Nevada responded the following inning, capitalizing on a wild pitch that cut the Aztecs lead to one.
Julian Escobedo drove in Casey Schmitt on a sacrifice fly to right field in the bottom of the eighth to bring the score to its final 8-5.
Winston (2-0) earned the win for the Aztecs, while Nevada's Owen Sharts (2-2) was dealt the loss, allowing six runs in 5.2 innings of work.
Notes
· SDSU clinched a series win over Nevada with tonight's win, marking the first time SDSU has beaten Nevada in a three-game series since April 7-9, 2017. It is the first time SDSU has won back-to-back games against the Wolf Pack since March 10-11, 2017.
· SDSU will go for its first weekend sweep of the season tomorrow. SDSU has recorded three weekend sweeps since the last time the team was last swept and are 13-3 in their last 16 games when playing on Sunday. A win tomorrow would also mark as SDSU's first sweep over Nevada since April 5-7, 2013.
· SDSU allowed a season-low three hits, the team's lowest total since allowing two at New Mexico on May 4, 2018.
· SDSU has won seven of their last 11 meetings with Nevada.
· SDSU pitching recorded its eighth 10+ strikeout game of the season in just 13 games. The Aztecs had 13 double-digit strikeout games over 60 games played in 2018.
· Casey O'Sullivan upped his strikeouts per nine innings ratio to a remarkable 17.18 after recording three strikeouts in 2.1 innings. Out of a possible 33 outs, O'Sullivan has recorded 21 of his outs via strikeout.
· Matt Rudick and Julian Escobedo both recorded their team-leading fifth multiple-hit games of the season.
· Angelo Armenta extended his hitting streak to a team season-best eight games.
· Jacob Maekawa extended his on-base streak to a team season-best nine games.
Head Coach Mark Martinez
On tonight's game:
"We won. Winning is hard man. It's really hard. We didn't play very good tonight, but we won, so hopefully that's a good way to kind of end the weekend going into tomorrow and finding a way to win tomorrow. We found a way to win playing bad. Simple as it gets. I thought our pitching staff did a phenomenal job once again – 3 hits, 12 strikeouts. That's pretty good. Walked too many guys. I think we walked seven and hit three. That's way too many free bases. Punched out 12. Got out of some big moments. We had two strikeout pass balls, and those are free bases as well. If we eliminate those free bases, this is a blowout victory. That's kind of what we did. We gave them opportunities, and were very fortunate to get away with a W tonight."
UP NEXT
SDSU goes for the sweep against Nevada on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. RHP Aaron Eden is scheduled to take the mound for the Aztecs.
Baseball Claims Series Win Against Nevada
