SAN DIEGO (Daily Aztec) - San Diego State baseball escaped with a 2-1 victory over No. 3-seed San Jose State in the opening round of the Mountain West Baseball Championship double-elimination tournament at Tony Gwynn Stadium on Thursday night.
“It was great baseball, it was hard for me to watch, but we’re very fortunate to get out of here with a win,” head coach Mark Martinez said.
No. 2-seed SDSU now moves on to play No. 4-seed UNLV tomorrow in the winner’s bracket, and Martinez said that the win puts the Aztecs in a fortuitous spot moving forward.
“I think you have to win the opening round,” he said. “It kind of gets yourself in a position to have the opportunity to get into Saturday and the championship round.”
SDSU trailed 1-0 late, but was able to break through on offense with a two-run seventh inning which included three hits and a game-winning RBI by senior outfielder Chase Calabuig.
“It was an all around effort, pitching was amazing set us up in that position,” Calabuig said. “There was a lot of ways that game could have gone wrong, and they held us in there tight, but in the seventh inning there (we) just battled.”
SDSU junior pitcher Garrett Hill outdueled Spartans junior Andrew Mitchel, striking out three and allowing only one run on five hits in 6.1 innings of work.
Hill and Mitchell were named Co-Mountain West Pitcher's of the Year following the end of the regular season.
“I knew it was going to be a good game, it was going to be a dogfight by both sides,” Hill said. “I just went out there and tried to make pitches, get outs, and let as few up as possible.”
