AZTECS REBOOT, WIN ANOTHER MW SERIES

San Diego State baseball coach Mark Martinez said his team needed a “reboot” after losing three of four games last week against UConn.

“We were kind of spiraling the wrong direction,” Martinez said. “Guys were hanging onto some negative stuff that’s happened around the yard. The little failures were piling up.

“Last week, we give up a run in the first inning and we don’t respond. Now we are responding. That’s been our mission the past week, try to deal with adversity the right way and respond the right way.”

SDSU had the right stuff in its first two Mountain West games this weekend against Air Force, beating the Falcons 11-0 and 13-1 at Tony Gwynn Stadium. Air Force (9-15, 4-5 MW) avoided the sweep with a 12-6 victory on Sunday, but the Aztecs (7-12, 4-3) still won their second series of the young conference season.

“I’m proud of our guys to this point,” Martinez said, “but we’ve still got a lot of work to do . ... We’ve still got a lot of meat on the bone.”

Starting pitchers TJ Fondtain and Chris Canada were in command the first two games. Fondtain (2-1) had eight strikeouts across six scoreless innings in Friday’s opener. Canada (1-2) had nine strikeouts over six innings, putting up zeroes after allowing a first-inning run.

“My mindset going into it was bounce back from last week, like I had something to prove,” said Canada, who allowed eight runs (six earned) over 41⁄3 innings in his previous start. “Mentally, I really worked this week on fine-tuning things that went wrong last week . ... It was mostly just filling up the strike zone and throwing strikes.”

SDSU sophomore DH Irvin Weems was 5-for-12 in the series with five RBIs, matching Fondtain in that department.

Weems boosted his batting average to .333, which shares the team lead with junior outfielder Cole Carrigg. SDSU catcher Poncho Ruiz went 6-for-11 with four RBIs.

SDSU is currently in fourth place in the Mountain West, trailing San Jose State (10-9, 4-2), Fresno State (13-9, 7-4) and New Mexico (14-8, 5-3).

This week: Tuesday at UC San Diego, 6 p.m.; Friday-Sunday at New Mexico, 4 p.m./ noon/10 a.m. PT.

UC San Diego

Weekend results: Swept the series with Cal State Bakersfield on 8-3, 8-4 and 6-4 scores.

Notable: The Tritons (15-6 6-0 Big West) remain atop the conference standings, just ahead of UC Santa Barbara (17-4, 5-1) and Cal State Fullerton (11-8, 5-1) with their second straight sweep.

UCSD did it again with pitching, most of the credit going to a bullpen that allowed only one run in 15 innings while piling up 21 strikeouts. Sophomore righthander Ryan Forcucci picked up Friday’s win with three shutout innings of relief, returning from a week off to heal from a minor injury.

Tritons sophomore third baseman Matt Halbach had six RBIs against Bakersfield, going 6-for-12 to boost his batting average to a team-high .375.

This week: Tuesday vs. SDSU, 6 p.m.; Friday-Sunday at UC Irvine, 6 p.m./1 p.m./1 p.m.

University of San Diego

Weekend results: USD lost Sunday’s finale at Santa Clara 9-7 in 11 innings after splitting the first two games, both on 10-6 scores.

Notable: The Toreros (9-12-1, 3-3 West Coast Conference) allowed a tying run in the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday against Santa Clara, went ahead 7-6 with a run in the top of the 11th, only to watch the Broncos get a walk-off three-run homer.

USD junior first baseman Kevin Sim (Torrey Pines High) homered twice in Saturday’s victory, giving him a team-high eight home runs and 24 RBIs.

The Toreros are tied for fifth place with Saint Mary’s (8-12, 3-3) in the WCC. Portland (16-7, 6-0) leads the conference, followed by Gonzaga (8-13, 5-1), Santa Clara (13-6, 4-2) and Loyola Marymount (11-10, 4-2).

This week: Tuesday at Cal State Northridge, 3 p.m.; Friday-Sunday vs. Pepperdine, 6 p.m./5 p.m./1 p.m.

Point Loma Nazarene

The Sea Lions (16-8, 4-4 PacWest) had the weekend off, but return to conference play with a four-game series against PacWest leader Azusa Pacific (19-11, 12-4), which strengthened its conference lead over the weekend with three wins against Fresno Pacific.

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

Cal State San Marcos

The Cougars (7-12, 1-8 CCAA) had the week off and resume conference play against Stanislaus State (16-14, 9-11), which split a four-game series with Cal State Los Angeles.

This week: Friday-Sunday vs. Stanislaus State, 3 p.m./noon (DH)/11 a.m.