AZTECS RAKE WITH 21 RUNS IN SERIES WIN

Several high school and college teams are playing football in the spring this year because of the pandemic.

Let’s make this clear — San Diego State and Fresno State are not among them.

SDSU’s 21-14 road victory over Fresno State on Sunday afternoon was a football score in a baseball game.

A touchdown, er, sevenrun ninth inning made the difference in a series victory over Fresno State (10-18, 7-11 Mountain West) that saw the Aztecs (19-9, 14-7) boost their MW lead to three games.

UNLV (14-7, 9-6) remained in second place, despite not playing this weekend at San Jose State because of COVID-19 issues within the Rebels program.

Sunday’s slugfest included some eye-popping numbers by the SDSU offense, which produced 16 runs in the final four innings to overcome a 14-5 deficit.

The most notable performance came from right fielder Jaden Fein, who was 6-for-6 (four singles, double, home run) with five runs scored and three RBIs.

Fein, who came into the series ranked third in the nation with a .457 batting average, boosted his season average to .475 (57-for-120) by going 9-for-15 in the series with six RBIs.

SDSU teammates Matt Rudick, Wyatt Hendrie, Brian Leonhardt and Caden Miller all had three hits Sunday for the Aztecs, who collected 23 hits in the game.

Rudick and Miller had a game-high four RBIs. Hendrie had his team-leading seventh home run.

SDSU starting pitcher Ricky Tibbett was chased after 21⁄3 innings after allowing eight runs. Relievers Aaron Eden and Kohl Simas didn’t fare much better as the Bulldogs plated 14 runs by the fifth inning.

SDSU got back in the game with an eight-run sixth inning that made it 14-13, then tied the score with a run in the eighth.

The Aztecs split Saturday’s doubleheader to open the series, winning 12-11 before losing 5-3.

This week: SaturdaySunday vs. Dixie State, 1 p.m. (DH)/noon.

Toreros update

USD (22-8, 8-4 West Coast Conference) responded to a 12-1 loss Friday night in its series opener against San Francisco (14-18, 9-6 WCC) by winning on 7-5 and 8-1 scores over the weekend.

USD moved ahead of USF in the conference standings. The Toreros still trail slightly behind Gonzaga (21-13, 10-4) and Portland (18-17, 10-5), two teams coming up on the schedule in the next month.

This week: Friday-Sunday at Santa Clara, 3 p.m./1 p.m./noon.

Tritons update

For the second straight week, UC San Diego (9-19, 610 Big West) avoided a fourgame sweep by winning the last game of its series.

The Tritons posted a 9-5 victory Sunday over No. 22ranked UC Santa Barbara (24-10, 15-5), which applied the 10-run rule twice while winning 15-2, 15-10 and 15-5 in the first three games.

This week: Friday-Sunday vs. CS Bakersfield, 3 p.m./noon (DH)/1 p.m.

Sea Lions update

Point Loma Nazarene (816, 7-12 PacWest) slipped into last place after losing three games against Biola. The Sea Lions opened the series with an 11-6 victory, then lost 5-4, 13-6 and 3-2.

PLNU fell into last place in the PacWest’s SoCal Pod with the losses to Biola (8-13, 8-11).

This week: Friday vs. Azusa Pacific, noon (DH); Saturday at Azusa Pacific, noon (DH).