AZTECS RUN-RULED BY AFA AS ACE DOESN’T PITCH OPENER

A premium is placed on pitching in postseason tournaments, so coaches sometimes try strategies they wouldn’t consider in the regular season.

San Diego State’s Mountain West Baseball Championship opener Thursday afternoon against Air Force was a case in point.

Air Force coach Mike Kazlausky came out looking like a genius while leaving SDSU coach Mark Martinez to wonder what else he could have done after the second-seeded Aztecs lost 12-1 to thirdseeded Air Force at Fresno State’s Bennett Stadium.

The game was called after seven innings when the 10run mercy rule was invoked.

SDSU (24-28) now faces an elimination game today at 1:30 p.m. against fourthseeded Fresno State (29-26), which also was run-ruled in a 13-2 loss to top-seeded San Jose State (28-24).

The Aztecs will have Mountain West Pitcher of the Year TJ Fondtain on the mound after Martinez chose to keep Fondtain on regular rest in Game 2 rather than bump him up a day for Game 1.

“Had to keep TJ on his throwing schedule based on his workload the entire season,” Martinez said by phone after the game.

The original plan was that SDSU would win its first game with a starter, sophomore Jadon Bercovich, who had some success against the Falcons two weeks ago.

They then would have Fondtain (7-3, 2.80 ERA) to pitch the Aztecs into Saturday’s championship game. Instead, Fondtain will take the mound with the Aztecs’ backs to the wall in the losers’ bracket.

Kazlausky started closer Sawyer Hawks, whose 21 appearances for Air Force (2729) this season all were out of the bullpen.

Only one of those occasions was more than innings, a 32⁄3-inning outing in which he closed out a win over the Aztecs two weeks ago.

Hawks (4-0) was even more impressive on this day, tossing six shutout innings. He scattered four hits with 10 strikeouts in six-plus innings before the Falcons relieved him.

“Unbelievable,” Kazlausky said in a postgame MW interview on the field. “He’s been our closer the majority of the year, so with him to be able to come out here and give us six innings (was impressive).

“Then to be able to close it down there at the end and not have to burn any of our bullpen for the upcoming games, it was a big day.”

Meanwhile, SDSU started Bercovich (0-2), who made only three appearances this season — all starts over the past five weeks — totaling 52⁄3 innings in his return from Tommy John surgery.

Bercovich did have success against Air Force two weeks ago, going 21⁄3 innings without allowing an earned run.

Hence, the decision to start him in the tournament opener.

It didn’t go nearly as scripted.

Bercovich departed with two outs in the second inning after allowing five hits and being charged with four runs as the Falcons jumped out to a 5-0 lead.

SDSU’s bullpen fared no better than Bercovich.

In fact, when Brian Leonhardt relieved Bercovich with two runners aboard, the first hitter he faced, DH Jake Greiving, hit a three-run homer.

Air Force extended its advantage to 7-0 with two runs in the fourth inning and 11-0 with four more runs in the sixth before adding a final run in the seventh.

SDSU finally got something going against Hawks in the seventh, loading the bases with no outs. But Air Force reliever Duke Benge allowed just one run on a sacrifice fly before retiring the side to end the game.

“Got beat,” said Martinez, who was 2023 Mountain West co-Coach of the Year. “Survive and advance from here on out.”