Baseball

OTD in 2009: Strasburg's No-Hitter vs. Air Force

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OTD in 2009: Strasburg's No-Hitter vs. Air ForceOTD in 2009: Strasburg's No-Hitter vs. Air Force

On May 8, 2009, Aztec Hall of Fame pitcher Stephen Strasburg tossed a no-hitter in his final collegiate home start against Air Force at Tony Gwynn Stadium. Following the season, Strasburg received numerous accolades, including the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award to go with National Pitcher of the Year honors by the College Baseball Foundation. He signed with the Washington Nationals after being chosen as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 Major League Baseball Draft. Below is a recap from that historic night.

SAN DIEGO - San Diego State junior Stephen Strasburg added to his credentials as one of the premier pitchers in the nation as he threw the first no-hitter of his collegiate career in SDSU's 5-0 win over Air Force Friday evening at Tony Gwynn Stadium. An all-time Aztec record crowd of 3,337 fans witnessed the contest which marked the right-hander's final home appearance of the 2009 season.

Strasburg retired the first nine hitters he faced, seven via the strikeout, before giving up a leadoff walk to Nathan Carter to start the fourth. After a fly ball out, Carter was erased attempting to steal before another strikeout ended the inning.

The Falcons' only other base runner on the night came on a second leadoff walk, this time to K.J. Randhawa to open the sixth. Although Randhawa would steal second later in the frame, Strasburg struck out the side to erase the threat. Including those three Ks, Strasburg (11-0) would retire the final 12 batters he faced, striking out the side in the ninth to close out the contest.

Air Force starter Casey Allen, meanwhile, set down the first eight Aztec batters he faced before hitting Ryan O'Sullivan with two out in the third. O'Sullivan, however, was erased trying to steal second. Brandon Meredith recorded the first hit of the contest with a two-out single in the fourth but was left stranded.

San Diego State (32-18, 11-8 MWC) finally broke through in the bottom of the fifth as Jomel Torres doubled with two out and Easton Gust followed with an RBI single through the left side to give the Aztecs a 1-0 lead.

SDSU added a pair of runs in the next inning when Pat Colwell walked and went to second on an errant pickoff attempt by Allen. He moved up to third on Brandon Decker's fly ball to right before Meredith drew an intentional walk to put runners at the corners.

Erik Castro then hit a grounder to Jon McMahon at third, but his throw to second was wide of the bag. Colwell scored on the play, with Meredith racing home two batters later on Mitch Blackburn's two-out single to left.

The Aztecs got their final two runs in the eighth on back-to-back singles by Meredith and Castro, a double to left by Cory Vaughn and a safety squeeze off the bat of Blackburn.

Air Force's Allen, who went the distance on the mound, took the loss to see his record fall to 1-3 on the year. The result dropped the Falcons to 14-32 overall and 3-13 in the Mountain West Conference.

Meredith, who had a pair of singles, was the lone Aztec to record more than one hit in the contest while Blackburn finished with a single and two runs batted in.

Following his no-hitter, Strasburg was named the Pro-Line National Player of the week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and a Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week by Collegiate Baseball. In addition, he was selected as the National Player of the Week and was named to the College Baseball Foundation's weekly National All-Star Lineup as well as the Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Week.

It marked the fifth Louisville Slugger honor and second NCBWA award in 2009 for Strasburg. It was also the eighth time in 12 weeks that season that he was listed on the College Baseball Foundation's National All-Star Lineup.