San Diego State took two of three games at BYU this weekend, wrapping up Mountain West Conference play yesterday with a 9-5 victory against the Cougars.
It may be too little, too late for the Aztecs to gain a second-place berth in the conference, however.
SDSU (30-22, 16-8) sits in third, trailing TCU (16-5) and New Mexico (15-5). New Mexico would have to lose all of its last four conference games – today at UNLV and three next weekend at TCU – for the Aztecs to finish second.
First-and second-place finishers get first-round byes in the double-elimination MWC Tournament, May 20-24 at TCU.
A tie is no good for SDSU since both TCU and New Mexico hold the tiebreaker edge by virtue of winning series against the Aztecs.
SDSU, therefore, likely will finish third and play the sixth-place team in the tournament's opening game. The sixth-place team remains to be determined among UNLV (8-12), Utah (8-12) and BYU (8-13).
That the Aztecs still have a mathematical chance for second is due to the pitching of Nate Solow and the hitting of shortstop Troy Hanzawa and left fielder Brandon Decker.
Solow (5-6) scattered 10 hits over eight innings against BYU, giving up three earned runs while striking out six.
Hanzawa highlighted a five-run third inning with a two-run double to give the Aztecs a 5-1 lead. When the Cougars rallied within a run at 5-4, Decker responded with his first homer of the season. The two-run shot provided a 7-4 lead. Decker finished with three hits and four RBI.
SDSU plays its final home game Tuesday at 6 p.m. against Long Beach State, then concludes the regular season with a three-game series at Cal State Fullerton.
USD falls to USF
USD was cruising along with a one-run lead at USF before the Dons used a big eighth inning for a 6-3 West Coast Conference win.
The No. 8-ranked Toreros (39-14, 16-4) were aiming to reach the 40-win plateau for just the second time. Last year's team went 43-18. USD gets another crack at it today when the teams complete the three-game series.
The contest also will complete the regular season for the Toreros. USD coach Rich Hill could add two more games to the schedule to reach 56, the maximum allowed by the NCAA in the regular season.
Regardless, the Toreros will be hosting the best-of-three WCC Championship Series May 23-25. Pepperdine and Santa Clara are battling for second place and the chance to oppose the Toreros.
Against USF, the Toreros' Josh Romanski allowed just five hits and one run with seven strikeouts, leaving after seven innings with a 2-1 lead.
USF scored five times in the eighth inning against Ricardo Pecina (5-4), the big blows coming on a two-run single by Chris Escobar and a three-run homer by Stephen Yarrow. An error by shortstop Sean Nicol to open the inning resulted in none of the runs being earned.
Kirk Kenney: (619) 293-1825; kirk.kenney@uniontrib.com
