When San Diego State head baseball coach Jim Dietz looks back at last night’s 8-7 home victory over Cal State Northridge, he will probably proud of the way substitute coaches Jim Warner, Rusty Filter, Pat Oliverio and Bryan Wolfe handled it.
The longtime head coach might have been away taking care of some SDSU baseball business, but the game still had a Dietz feel to it. In typical Dietz-style of baseball, they used six pitchers, the game lasted more than three hours and the Aztecs got a win.
“It’s fun for us to take over from time to time,” Warner said. “Coach Dietz didn’t give us a game plan. He just told us to go out there and get them.”
The Aztecs were getting beat early, and the Matadors (31-17-1) flexed their muscles in a five-run third inning. Left fielder Terrmel Sledge blasted a two-run home run over the right field wall, scattering the fans at raggers rail.
After a Dan Pierce single, All-American shortstop candidate Adam Kennedy deposited a pitch deep over the wall in right-center, giving CSUN a 5-1 lead.
SDSU (28-13-1) trailed 6-2 entering the bottom of the fifth inning before it began to mount a comeback.
With one out in the inning, catcher Rob Coddington, center fielder Stewart Smothers and second baseman all reached to load the bases. Right fielder Andy Bevins and first baseman Ryan Hammons followed with two-run singles to tie the game.
The normally quiet Aztec dugout came alive after the rally began, cheering on teammates and sending verbal barrages to their opponents.
“There was a little intensity tonight,” Warner said. “The guys know what we’ve got to do: get wins. I like the way we played, I thought we played hard and we didn’t panic when we fell behind.”
Freshman Paul Lockhart helped them get the win when he started off the seventh inning with a triple. Shortstop Tavares Comeaux singled him in and later scored on Matador pitcher, Gary Stephenson’s, throwing error.
“We had some real good at-bats,” Warner said. “We executed well at the plate; when we needed to move somebody over or drive in a run, we did it.”
CSUN came back with a run in the seventh inning off winning pitcher Jody Stevens, but the Aztec bullpen wouldn’t allow another run, pitching 2 1/3 scoreless innings.
Junior left-hander Joey Garcia came through with his best outing of his Aztec career. The junior college transfer pitched two scoreless innings before handing the game over to closer Jeff Dufek, who got the final out to earn his sixth save of the season.
