College Baseball : Pitchers Lead Aztecs to Two Victories

SAN DIEGO —  Thanks to outstanding pitching performances by freshman right-hander Mike Erb and sophomore left-hander Matt Haar, the 18th-ranked San Diego State baseball team won a pair of games Tuesday in the Riverside Tournament to improve its record to 28-12 overall and 3-1 in the tournament.

Erb (5-1) pitched a complete-game six-hitter and struck out 10 as the Aztecs defeated Harvard in the first game, 8-4. Haar (2-0) came on in relief of Dave Provencher in the third inning of SDSU’s second game and pitched shutout ball the rest of the way, allowing just five hits as the Aztecs defeated UC Riverside, 6-2.

San Diego State, the defending tournament champion, will play one game in the tournament today, against UCLA, at 11 a.m.

Against Harvard, SDSU scored four times in the bottom of the fourth inning to erase a 3-1 deficit. Steve Hill was 3 for 4 with one RBI and Ron Vanegas, Steve Montejano and Rick Cortez all had two hits to lead SDSU’s 12-hit attack. Harvard, which had beaten previously undefeated Missouri, 14-1, in its tournament opener on Monday, fell to 2-1 in the tournament and 2-1 overall despite three hits and a home run by Bobby Kay.

Against UC Riverside, SDSU fell behind 2-0 after two innings before Haar came on to shut the door. Meanwhile, Mark Grace singled in one run and Steve Moscaret singled in two as the Aztecs scored five times in the top of the third inning to take control. SDSU scored one more run on Steve Hokama’s first home run of the season in the fourth inning to close out the scoring.

Hokama collected two hits in the contest and Moscaret and Rob Knowles each had two hits and and two RBIs to back the combined seven-hit pitching of Provencher and Haar.

Elsewhere in the Riverside Tournament, Missouri split two games, beating Air Force, 19-12, and losing to Oregon State, 11-10. Against Air Force, Missouri rallied from a 9-0 deficit, thanks to seven runs in the fourth inning and four runs in the fifth. Chip Skitter had five hits for the Falcons, who remained winless in the tournament.

With its two victories, SDSU is in first place in the tournament’s Blue Division with a 3-1 record. Harvard is 2-1 and Air Force is 0-3. Arizona State, the other team in the Blue Division, played its first game of the tournament late Tuesday night against UCLA. Oregon State, which knocked off SDSU, 4-3, Monday, leads the Gold Division with a 2-0 record.