CBB News Sources
SAN DIEGO – Pat Colwell’s two-out single in the bottom of the 11th inning drove home the winning run as San Diego State defeated New Mexico, 3-2, Sunday afternoon at Tony Gwynn Stadium. Colwell’s heroics made a winner of junior right-hander James McLaughlin (3-0), who had just come on in the top of the inning in relief of senior starter Shane Kaufman, who had pitched brilliantly over the first 10 frames. The hit was the fifth of the day for Colwell whose safeties included a double and four singles plus a sac bunt, run scored and the all-important RBI to end the contest.
The victory improved the Aztecs to 6-3 in the Mountain West Conference (18-13 overall) as it ended the weekend still clinging to first place in the league standings. Five other teams, though, are just one game back including New Mexico, which dropped to 20-11 overall and 5-4 in the MWC.
After a less than auspicious beginning to the contest, Kaufman settled in nicely and kept the Lobos at bay through 10 innings. His only mistake of the afternoon came early as he gave up a leadoff walk to Mike Brownstein followed by a two-run homer to Kevin Atkinson that gave the visitors a quick 2-0 lead. From there, the senior righty allowed only three more hits and a walk while striking out four over the first 10 frames. UNM had two runners on base in only one inning, and a double play erased that threat.
On the other side, New Mexico starter Steven Smith was just as effective and he kept the Aztecs off the scoreboard over the first four frames. However, SDSU cut the deficit in half with a run in the fifth on singles by Colwell and Troy Hanzawa plus a sacrifice fly by Nick Romero.
