Air Force Academy
San Diego St
Aztecs beat Air Force, 10-3, in series opener
3/22/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 22, 2003
Late-inning runs cost the Falcons again as San Diego State defeated Air Force, 10-3, in the first of a three-game series, Friday, March 21, at Tony Gwynn Stadium in San Diego, Calif. The Aztecs scored six runs in the final three innings.
With this weekend's game being played in San Diego due to heavy snow in the Rockies, SDSU used its home field advantage to improve to 10-16 on the season and 4-1 in the Mountain West Conference. Air Force dropped its fourth straight overall and seventh consecutive league game to fall to 8-13 and 0-7 in MWC play.
SDSU got a strong pitching performance from Mike Moat, who went eight innings and struck out 10 Falcons. Ryan Heil added to the Aztec strikeout total, fanning a pair of batters in retiring the side in the ninth inning.
San Diego State broke on top with three runs in the third on a bases-loaded single by Anthony Gwynn and a sacrifice fly by James Guerrero.
After the Falcons came back with a run in the fourth on Daniel Petro's two-out double, the Aztecs restored their three-run cushion when Chad Corona scored from third on Landon Burt's fielders choice.
Air Force narrowed SDSU's lead to one at 4-3 with a pair of runs in the sixth on RBIs from Petro and Derck Kasel. But that's as close as the Falcons would get with their comeback effort.
The Aztecs added two runs to their total in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI triple by Burt, who later scored on a wild pitch. A 420-foot home run by Jake McLintock to lead off the seventh gave SDSU a 7-3 lead, and it tacked on three more in the eighth with RBIs by Peter Stonard, Jon Stephens and Rielly Embrey.
San Diego State's Landon Burt finished the night with three hits including a triple, two runs scored and two RBI. McLintock, Rielly Embrey and Josh Allen also collected two hits apiece for the Aztecs.
The Falcon offense was paced by Josh Phifer, Daniel Petro and Derck Kasel with a pair of hits apiece. Petro also had two RBI while Kasel had one. AFA starting pitcher Jesper Stubbendorff took the loss as his record fell to 2-3 on the year.
Air Force and San Diego continue their three-game series at Tony Gwynn Stadium on Saturday (March 22) with first pitch scheduled for 1:00 p.m. The game can be heard live on the Internet at www.goaztecs.com with Alan Horton calling the action.
