Glenn Connelly / Photo Editor

San Diego State baseball senior infielder Mitch Blackburn had a 16-game hitting streak heading into this weekend. After SDSU finished smashing Wagner on Sunday morning, 21-12, Blackburn raised that streak to 20 games.

Throughout the course of the Aztecs’ second successful sweep of the year, Blackburn had nine base hits and 10 RBIs.

“He’s a guy that, if the game’s on the line, you want him up there,” head coach Tony Gwynn said. “He is a threat because he’s really good at pulling the ball where we need it to go. He can bunt, he can move the ball around, and he’s got a little bit of pop. I trust his ability to put the bat on the ball.”

Sunday’s victory against Wagner extended Blackburn’s hit streak, and while baseball has a superstitious nature surrounding streaks, he’s not worried about it being jinxed.

“I’m not scared,” Blackburn said. “Honestly I didn’t even really know I was in it for this long until I looked it up earlier this week and saw that it was 16.”

The program record at SDSU for a single season hit-streak is 28 games, set in 1992. Blackburn has already topped the team record of 20, set in 2008 by classmate Brandon Decker, but doesn’t seem too worried about the school record.

“If I do it, great. If I don’t break a hitting streak record, it wouldn’t be the end of the world,” Blackburn said. “It would be a great legacy; but we’ll see what happens.”

Throughout the four-game sweep at Tony Gwynn Stadium, the Aztecs pulled in a whopping total of 58 runs to Wagner’s 15, and Blackburn didn’t cool off. He pulled the ball multiple times in three of the four games, and scored eight times. Gwynn had some serious advice for him after the final game wrapped.

“Keep it as simple as you can possibly keep it,” Gwynn said. “When you have a hitting streak, it really boils down to getting a good pitch and putting a swing on it.”

In Sunday’s victory, SDSU scored in every inning except two, bringing its record above .500 for the first time this season (21-20).

Blackburn went 2-for-5 with three RBIs, and classmate outfielder Josh Chasse had a great outing as well, going 3-for-4 and scoring five times.

The Aztecs ran through the lineup during an inning twice, including a big six-run rally in the seventh inning when they managed eight hits in 11 at-bats.

“To me, I don’t really look at the numbers per se,” Gwynn said after the sweep. “I just look at the guys and how they’re approaching their at bats, and they’re doing a great job. We needed to come in and play well this weekend and we were able to do that. I’ll sleep a little better tonight.”