Aztecs fall to .500 in regular-season finale
By: MICHAEL KLITZING - Staff Writer | ∞
SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego State baseball team doesn't have another game for a 10 days as it awaits the Mountain West Conference tournament on May 23 in Las Vegas. That might just be the best news the Aztecs have had all month.
After a 7-3, 13-inning loss to Brigham Young on Saturday afternoon at Tony Gwynn Stadium -- the Aztecs' 11th loss in 12 games -- it sure looks like they could use a break from baseball.
"More than anything physical, they need the mental rest," said head coach Tony Gwynn, who is giving his players three days off starting today. "They need to get away from it for a few days. Go to the beach, take the girlfriend to dinner, take the mom out (today); whatever it is, get away."
That sounds like as good a plan as any to try to put an end to a skid that plummeted the Aztecs from 10 games over .500 three weeks ago to 28-28 (12-12 Mountain West Conference) on the doorstep of the second season.
Their latest loss secured a non-winning season in conference for the first time since the Mountain West started play in 2000.
"I don't think there's any big changes we need to make," said first baseman Joe Spiers after the Aztecs' second consecutive 13-inning loss. "We just need to go out there and play with some fight. We've fought pretty hard two days in a row, but we just came up short two days in a row."
The latest one was not pretty. The game featured five Aztecs errors, multiple disputed calls and a nasty collision that sent Cougars left fielder Kent Walton to the hospital.
BYU (31-18, 14-7) finally broke through with four runs in the 13th after Nick Romero bobbled a chop to third with two outs to allow Leon Johnson to score the go-ahead run from second base. The flood gates opened from there, as the contest was put out of reach on Stephen Wells' second home run of the game.
Walton and Spiers collided in the eighth on a close two-out play at first in which Spiers bobbled a grounder and then attempted to take the ball to the bag himself.
The BYU sophomore suffered head and neck trauma and was motionless on the ground for more than 10 minutes. He was removed by stretcher and taken to Scripps Mercy hospital before being released.
"I didn't think (the pitcher) was going to get there in time and I thought I could beat him," Spiers said. "After that it was just kind of a blur until I hit the ground. ... I hope he's all right."
The Aztecs scrapped back to tie the game at three with two in the eighth. The rally was keyed by Cameron Johnson's RBI single -- his fourth hit of the game -- but the bats fell silent the rest of the way.
Left-hander Lance Sewell carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning for the Aztecs (they still trailed 1-0 at the time), and held his own with Cougars ace Jesse Craig, allowing just two earned runs in 7 2/3 innings. But it wasn't enough. Not much has been lately.
"We started out great, now it's back to even; back to ground zero," Gwynn said. "We're 28-28, going into the tournament knowing we're going to have to play an extra game. And if they want to win it, they know they're going to have to play better baseball."
-- Contact staff writer Michael Klitzing at mrklitzing@gmail.com.
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