On the verge of getting its first sweep in Mountain West Conference play, the San Diego State baseball team dropped a 10-6 decision to Utah on Sunday afternoon at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
“We didn’t really pitch real good today, but again, we had opportunities to put runs on the board,” head coach Tony Gwynn said. “Not having really good at-bats in those situations doesn’t help either. But the biggest thing is when you pitch behind like we did today, good teams are going to take advantage of you.”
Utah did just that, getting three runs in the top of the first inning. In Philip Walby’s first start of the year, the Utes jumped on the freshman pitcher early. After a leadoff double and an intentional walk, Utah outfielder Shaun Cooper hit a three-run homer to left center field.
SDSU responded to the Utes with a run in the bottom half of the inning on a sacrifice fly by junior outfielder Brandon Meredith.
The Aztecs had another opportunity to score, with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third, but freshman shortstop Cody Slader flied out to center field to end the top half of the inning.
The Utes didn’t run into any trouble in the bottom of the third, scoring twice. After loading the bases, Walby was pulled for Steven Moranda. The senior pitcher didn’t fare much better, giving up a sacrifice fly and an RBI single, which gave Utah a 5-1 lead.
“Utah is a really good offensive club,” Gwynn said. “And when you’re behind in the count, it makes it a little easier for them to go up there and pick a pitch to hit.”
The Aztecs were able to score their second run of the afternoon in the bottom half of the third after consecutive doubles by Meredith and junior outfielder Chris Wilson. Ute pitcher Ben Mordini was then pulled for freshman Luke West, who earned his first win of the season after giving up two unearned runs in 3 1/3 innings.
Utah would score five more runs, three in the sixth and one in seventh and ninth. SDSU scored in the seventh after a hit batter, walk and two errors gave it two runs. Then in the ninth inning, SDSU scored again after a two-out error by shortstop James Brooks allowed the Aztecs to pick up two more runs despite the loss.
“Anytime you can win a series, it’s a good thing,” Gwynn said. “But two times now, we’ve won the first two games in the series and in the third game we just haven’t been able to do the things that we needed to do.”
SDSU plays its next contest against UC Irvine at 6:30 p.m. tonight at Anteater Ballpark.
