Air Force Academy
San Diego State*
Falcons Swept By San Diego State With 5-4 Loss
3/21/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 21, 2004
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - A late game rally fell short as San Diego State escaped with a 5-4 win and weekend sweep of Air Force in a Mountain West Conference baseball game at Tony Gwynn Stadium. AFA falls to 5-17 overall and 0-3 in the MWC, while SDSU improves to 13-17, 3-0.
Trailing 5-2, the Falcons scored two runs in the eighth inning on four consecutive hits but failed to score any more runs.
Ben Coon (3-0) picked up his second win in relief in as many days, as he was the winning pitcher in yesterday's game. Mitch Brown (0-2) took the loss in relief for the Falcons, allowing four runs in three innings pitched.
The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the third inning, when San Diego State manufactured a run to go up 1-0. Landon Burt singled to lead-off the inning, then stole second base. After AFA starter Clayton Couch got Lance Zawadzki to strike out, James Guerrero singled to right-center, scoring Burt.
Not to be outdone, the Falcons came right back in the top of the fourth, scoring a run in the same manner to tie the game up at 1-1. With two outs, Jason Brown drew a walk and stole second base. Geno Salazar then came through with a single up the middle to score Brown.
Couch, who has struggled with a blister on his throwing hand for the past week, was only able to go three innings, giving way to Brown who came in and struck out the side in the fourth. Couch held the Aztecs to four singles and struck out three.
Aztec starter Chris Hartshorn went five innings, allowing one run on four hits and walked three.
The Falcons had a chance to score some runs in the sixth as Coon loaded the bases with one out. Coon rebounded however, to strike out John Polston and Colton Walter to escape the jam.
SDSU broke the game wide open in the sixth, scoring three two-out runs to jump out to a 4-1 lead. The scoring began with Brock Ungricht's RBI-triple, then Jake McClintock and Chad Corona followed with RBI-singles to put the Aztecs up by three runs.
After two quick outs to start the seventh, AFA battled back with three consecutive singles by Travis Fugler, Dale Kasel and Karl Bolt to score a run and narrow the deficit to 4-2 in favor of the Aztecs.
San Diego State tacked on a run in the seventh, on Reilley Embrey's sacrifice fly, which would turn out to be the game winner.
Air Force made the game interesting scoring a pair of runs in the eighth to narrow the SDSU lead to 5-4. Geno Salazar led off the inning with a double down the line in left field and scored on Polston's single. Colton Walter then followed with a single and pinch-hitter Josh Wolfram was credited with a bunt double as he managed to bunt the ball past the second and first baseman, getting the ball to trickle into the outfield, scoring Salazar from second.
SDSU closer Ryan Schroyer struck out three in the ninth to get his fifth save of the season, despite nearly allowing the game tying run. With two outs, Salazar singled and then reached third base on an errant throw-over by Schroyer. But Schroyer struck out Polston to end the game.
Salazar had a career-best three hits for the Falcons with Dale Kasel and Karl Bolt adding two hits each.
Burt led the way for San Diego State with three hits and two runs scored.
Air Force returns to action tomorrow (March 22) at Point Loma Nazarene, in San Diego, taking on the Sea Lions at 2:30 p.m.(PST) at Carroll B. Land Stadium.
Game Notes: Leadoff hitter Colton Walter led off the first, third and fifth innings for the Falcons... Mitch Brown retired the first seven batters he faced--the first four by strikeouts... Geno Salazar's seventh inning double was the first extra base hit for the Falcons in the San Diego State series.
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