San Diego State baseball opened their home schedule with a 8-4 win against Cal State Fullerton on Tuesday night at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The Aztecs now sit at 3-1.
“It was an ugly win, we made six errors.” Head baseball coach Mark Martinez said, “The one thing we understand is good teams win ugly.”
We witnessed a back and forth affair until junior outfielder Matt Rudick stole second and senior outfielder Mike Jarvis stole home, which gave the Aztecs a 5-4 lead.
“There’s gonna be jitters at the beginning of the year.” Senior Mike Jarvis said, “I think most of us got it out, and at the end of the day the most important thing is finding a way to win and we did that.”
In the same inning, a 2-run RBI double by Ryan Orr pushed the lead to 7-4. Orr went 3-4 and tallied two RBIs.
SDSU returned from South Carolina where they went 2-1 over the past weekend. The team defeated Virginia Tech and Coastal Carolina, but lost to UNC Greensboro.
“We swung the bats all weekend in South Carolina and it kind of carried over to today.” Martinez said, “We should be pretty good offensively.”
An RBI by sophomore Brian Leonhardt extended the lead to 8-4, as outfielder Rudick crossed home plate.
The Aztecs opened up the game with a Jarvis homerun, it was his first of the season and set the stage for the team.
“Jarvis found the barrel, hit one out and it got us going a little bit.” Martinez said, “I think that was a huge momentum deal where we thought we could win.”
However, the Titans answered. Pinch hitter Max Miller singled to left field and brought home Josh Urps.
Senior Jacob Cruce singled to right and Orr scored to push the Aztecs’ lead to 2-1. Right after that, the Titans’ Miguel Ortiz doubled to center field and it tied the game as Isaiah Garcia scored.
In the top of the 4th, the Titans scored two runs as a single followed up by an error brought two base runners home.
After that, it was all Aztecs. They scored six unanswered runs while the Titans only had one hit in the final five innings.
The Aztecs will play again at home Friday-Sunday for the Tony Gwynn Legacy Classic.
“It’s such a blast. It’s going to be so special for us.” Leonhardt said, “Having the Gwynn family come out and be here it’s a different atmosphere when they come out. We love to honor him. [Tony Gwynn]”