The rough month of March continues for San Diego State baseball as they fell to New Mexico, 5-2, Thursday night at Tony Gwynn stadium to begin their three-game homestand.
Pitcher Chris Canada started on the mound after an unexpectedly slow start to the season and gave SDSU 4.1 IP, allowing 3 earned runs and just 2 hits.
“He did a great job tonight,” said head coach Shaun Cole. “We made some adjustments in his delivery and gave him time off mentally, it proved to be a huge positive.”
Infielder Colby Turner continued his strong freshman campaign, going 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run of his own. This pair of hits added to his 29 on the season while raising his batting average to .383, both team highs.
The lone runs of the game for the Scarlet and Black (6-17, 2-8 MW) came in the 8th inning. The inning began with a walk from outfielder Irvin Weems, followed by an RBI single from infielder Colby Turner. A base hit from infielder Tino Bethancourt moved Turner to third, and led to a sacrifice fly from catcher Evan Sipe to make it 5-2.
Despite just scoring two runs, SDSU had a runner in scoring position in eight of the nine innings, but could not capitalize on these scoring opportunities consistently.
“We’ve been trying to improve our clutch hitting the last two weeks,” Cole said. “If we can fix that area, we’ll compete in more games and see a lot more wins.”
The New Mexico offensive outburst came in the 5th inning with the help of sloppy Aztec pitching. The SDSU pitching staff would draw up an inning including 6 walks, 1 batter hit by a pitch, and a double to give the Lobos (16-9, 7-3 MW) a 5-0 lead. Two of these six walks came with the bases loaded, walking in 2 runs and taking pressure off the Lobos bats.
Freshman pitchers Chris Canavan and Evan Miranda gave the Aztecs a fighting chance to close the game, combining for 4.2 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit combined
SDSU looks to bounce back in a doubleheader against the Lobos to close out the series on Friday.
First pitch times are set for 2 and 6 p.m. in Tony Gwynn stadium.
