AZTECS MAINTAIN FIRST PLACE IN MW AFTER SPLIT
San Diego State remained in first place in the Mountain West by a razorthin margin after splitting four road games against San Jose State over the weekend.
SDSU (20-24, 14-9, .609 MW) is percentage points ahead of Air Force (23-26, 1410, .583) and San Jose State (22-22, 15-11, .577) with two weeks remaining in the regular season. The conference standings will be determined by winning percentage due to an unbalanced schedule created by rainouts.
The Aztecs were scheduled to play five games this weekend against San Jose State, including two that were postponed in March in San Diego. The fifth game was canceled when rain precluded playing the second game of Friday’s doubleheader.
SDSU won the first two games 5-3 and 5-0. The first game was resumed with the Spartans leading 2-0 in the fourth inning, when the
Aztecs rallied for all of their runs. Cade Martinez’s threerun double made the difference.
The shutout victory was compliments of SDSU junior left-hander TJ Fondtain (6-2), who allowed just two singles and a walk in the seven-inning game.
San Jose State earned the split with 4-0 and 7-2 victories.
The teams were tied 2-2 through five innings on Sunday before the Spartans scored five times in their last three at-bats.
SDSU can clinch a spot in the four-team Mountain West playoffs, which are being hosted by Fresno, with one more MW victory.
This week: Friday-Sunday at Air Force, 2 p.m./11 a.m./11 a.m.
University of San Diego
Weekend results: Won home series against BYU, losing the West Coast Conference opener 10-6 before 8-4 and 5-1 victories.
Notable: The Toreros (22-22-1, 15-9) are alone in second place, tied with Loyola Marymount (22-20, 15-6) in wins but with three more losses.
USD closes out the regular season this week, so the Toreros can win 18 games at most.
LMU could win six more games.
Finishing among the top two teams earns a firstround bye in the six-team WCC Tournament.
USD got on track in Game 2 with a six-run third inning.
All eight runs in the game came with two outs.
Sophomore left-hander Austin Smith (4-1) keyed USD’s win in the finale, tossing 62⁄3 innings of one-run ball with a career-high 11 strikeouts and no walks.
This week: Tuesday vs. UC Irvine, 6 p.m.; FridaySunday at Saint Mary’s, 3 p.m./1 p.m./1 p.m.
UC San Diego
Weekend results: Won the Big West opener against Cal State Northridge 5-4 in 11 innings followed by 10-1 and 11-0 losses.
Notable: The Tritons (2718, 15-9) clung to third place in the conference despite dropping the series to fourth-place Cal State Northridge (27-14, 13-8).
UCSD sophomore third baseman Matt Halbach’s RBI single in the 11th inning Friday night delivered the team’s fifth walk-off win this season.
UCSD then suffered its most lopsided back-to-back loses of this season.
This week: Friday-Sunday at Cal State Fullerton, 6 p.m./5 p.m./1 p.m.
Point Loma Nazarene
Notable: The top-seeded Sea Lions (34-12) take an eight-game winning streak into their PacWest Tournament opener against fourthseeded Holy Names (26-23) in Fresno.
Second-seeded Azusa Pacific (31-17) and thirdseeded Fresno Pacific (2321) are the other two teams in the double-elimination tourney.
The PacWest’s automatic
NCAA Tournamen berth goes to the winner.
This week: Wednesday vs. Holy Names, noon; Thursday-Friday, opponent/time TBA.
Cal State San Marcos Weekend results:
Split California Collegiate Athletic Association series at No. 13 Cal State Monterey Bay, winning the first two games 6-4 and 5-3 before losing the last two games 2-0 and 14-5.
Notable: The Cougars (20-25, 14-21) concluded the season, finishing ninth in the 11-team conference.
Three sophomores were the offensive leaders — outfielder Nick Schnopp in batting average (.372), infielder Sean McGrew in homers (4) and catcher Ethan Rivera in RBIs (30).
Sophomores also led the starting pitching — righthander Pat McDonald Jr. (5-4, 3.96 ERA) in wins and ERA and left-hander Nolan Long in strikeouts (51).