SAN DIEGO — Featuring a dominating start by Justin Goossen-Brown, the San Diego State baseball team opened its three-game series against Nevada with a 3-1 win on Friday night at Tony Gwynn Stadium. SDSU evens its record at 6-6 on the young season with a 1-1 mark in Mountain West play, while Nevada, which opened its MW schedule tonight, falls to 7-5.
Goossen-Brown, making his first weekend start of the season, allowed just one unearned run to score over his five innings of work. The senior right-hander finished his outing with six strikeouts while allowing one walk.
SDSU opened the scoring bottom of the second, beginning with Chad Bible scoring on a sacrifice fly by Jacob Maekawa. Matt Rudick then hit an RBI double for Ryan Orr to score, extending the Aztecs to an early 2-0 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth, Julian Escobedo scored on a triple by Angelo Armenta to make it a 3-0 Aztec advantage. Nevada responded with their lone run on an RBI ground out to second base by Weston Hatten in the top of the sixth.
In relief of Goossen-Brown, set-up man Adrian Mardueno continued his early-season dominance, striking out three while allowing just one hit over 2.1 innings pitched.
Offensively, three of SDSU's five base-hits went for extra-bases.
Goossen-Brown (2-0) earned the win for the Aztecs, while Nevada's Ryan Anderson (3-1) took the loss after letting up four hits, three earned runs and four walks. Casey Schmitt earned his second save of the year, allowing just one base-runner over 1.2 shutout innings of relief.
Notes
· SDSU snapped a four-game losing streak – the team's first four-game losing streak since April 26 – May 1, 2016 – and improve to 36-9 in games following a loss since the start of the 2017 season.
· SDSU recorded their seventh 10+ strikeout game of the season.
· SDSU has won six of their last 10 meetings with Nevada.
· SDSU improved to 23-1 in its last 24 games when holding their opponent to two or fewer runs.
· Adrian Mardueno maintained his 0.00 ERA with his sixth consecutive appearance without allowing an earned run this year. Mardueno, who was an All-Alaska Baseball League First Team honoree last year as the Anchorage Bucs closer with a 0.00 ERA, has not allowed an earned run to score in his last 31.1 innings pitched when combining the end of the 2018 season, the 2018 summer season in Alaska, and the start of the 2019 season.
· Angelo Armenta extended his hitting streak to a team season-best seven games.
· Jacob Maekawa extended his on-base streak to a team season-best eight games.
UP NEXT
SDSU continues its series with Nevada on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. Harrison Pyatt (0-1, 3.12 ERA) is expected to take the mound for the Aztecs, while Owen Sharts (2-1, 2.41 ERA) will open for the Wolf Pack. The game will be aired on the Mountain West Network.
Baseball Takes Down Nevada, 3-1
