SAN DIEGO -- Memo to San Diego State's cash-strapped athletic department: When Stephen Strasburg pitches, set up extra tables to sell tickets alongside the ticket booth at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
As Strasburg began delivering fastballs at 6:05 p.m. Friday, a line of impatient fans still stretched 50 yards across an intramural field adjacent to the stadium and then another 10 to 15 yards at a left angle up the sideline.
Many missed the first couple of innings as the junior All-American right-hander and Olympic bronze medalist struck out 14 in seven innings in SDSU's 4-3 win over Nevada-Las Vegas to open Mountain West Conference play before 2,102 fans.
"It was good to see the place packed," Strasburg said. "I hope we see (that) a couple more times this year."
There's not much doubt about that with the buzz Strasburg has created. With a fastball clocked at 101 mph by scouts against UNLV, he's projected as the first pick of the amateur draft in June and he's the headliner for the Aztecs (9-6, 1-0 MWC), a promising team picked second in the conference race.
Strasburg struck out the side to begin the game, in the process making No. 3 hitter Drew Beuerlein look foolish. Beuerlein entered the game with a .541 average and was honored as the conference player of the week after batting .643 in a series against Butler.
For the night, Strasburg gave up two runs on six hits and walked just one to improve to 4-0 in four starts this year.
UNLV (11-4, 0-1 MWC) tried tactics to raise Strasburg's pitch count, with the goal of knocking him out of the game by the sixth inning and trying to beat the SDSU's bullpen, which gave up a run in the ninth.
"I'm going to get that a lot," Strasburg said. "They're going to try and slow me down because I'm a big rhythm guy."
The West Hills High alum threw 116 pitches before leaving after seven innings. He finished the seventh despite suffering a cut on his left leg when he fielded a chopper between the mound and first base and beat the runner to the bag with his leg extended.
"He's going to get his strikeouts," UNLV coach Buddy Gouldsmith said. "He's like a basketball player that scores a lot of points. I told our guys we had to walk away from the strikeouts and just keep scratching and clawing."
Strasburg has posted double-figure strikeout total in all four games. He has 59 strikeouts and only five walks in 27 1/3 innings. He struck out 11 in 5 2/3 innings against Bethune-Cookman, 16 in 6 2/3 innings against Nevada and 18 in eight innings against then-No. 11 University of San Diego.
SDSU scored all four runs in the first two innings. Freshman Brandon Meredith had an RBI single and scored with sophomore Cory Vaughn on a single by sophomore designated hitter T.J. Thomas. Junior catcher Erik Castro of Fallbrook High stroked a solo home run in the second inning.
