San Diego State’s baseball team completed a three-game sweep of Nevada at Tony Gwynn Stadium Sunday afternoon to stretch its winning streak to 11 straight games and put the Aztecs a half-game ahead of Air Force in the Mountain West baseball race.
The Aztecs, who are now 30-18 overall, have three conference games at home next weekend against San Jose State before finishing the MW regular season with a three-game series at UNLV. The Aztecs also have a final nonconference game at UC San Diego on Tuesday.
SDSU swept the three games from Nevada, which entered the weekend in a virtual tie for the conference lead, by 7-3, 8-5 and 8-2 scores.
Right fielder Zane Kelly went 5-for-7 in the three games with three doubles, a home run, five RBIs and five runs scored. Center fielder Jake Jackson (Madison High School) had a home run and six RBIs in the three games. Catcher Zach Justice was 5-for-12 with two RBIs and two runs. Freshman first baseman Max Farrell (San Marcos High) was 5-for-13 with three RBIs. Freshman third baseman Nate Lopez hit a third home run for the Aztecs.
SDSU relievers won all three games.
“We’re getting better every game, and we’re not worried about the result,” said first-year SDSU coach Kevin Vance. “We want to eliminate the result from our approach and just win every pitch. That’s been a huge part of our success.
“We’ve done a really good job of sticking to the process.”
USD tennis to Texas
The 17th-ranked University of San Diego men’s tennis team (22-5) will play at No. 1-ranked Texas (26-6) at 4 p.m. Friday in the NCAA Super Regionals. The winner of the Sweet 16 match will advance to the eight-team NCAA Championships, held May 14-17 in Athens, Ga.
Comets Cruise
Palomar College won three straight games by a combined score of 38-9 to advance to the second round of the California Community College Athletic Association baseball playoffs. The Comets are now 37-5, ranked second in the state and are the No. 1 seed in the Southern California Regionals.
Palomar eliminated Mt. San Antonio 14-4 on Sunday.
Designated hitter-pitcher Elijah Stephens (Sage Creek High) went 9-for-17 in the three games with three doubles, a home run, seven RBIs and eight runs scored. Catcher Rainn McMillin was 5-for-12 with two doubles, a home run and five RBIs.
Seasons over
The seasons ended Sunday for Grossmont, Southwestern and Mesa colleges.
Grossmont College (27-17) lost two of three games at Allan Hancock College, falling 6-3 in the season finale. Right fielder Talon Tucker (Granite Hills High) was 4-for-10 in the three games with a home run and four RBIs. Center fielder Justin Heffler (St. Augustine High) also had a home run and four RBIs. Catcher Anthony Thomas (Fallbrook High ) also homered for the Griffins.
Southwestern (22-21) was defeated 11-6 by host Fullerton in the winner-take-all finale of their three-team regional. The Jaguars were 2-2 in the series and 1-2 against Fullerton. First baseman Andrew Guevara (Mar Vista High) went 7-for-16 in the four games with two doubles, two home runs and five RBIs.
Mesa (21-23) was defeated by Santa Barbara 15-6 in the winner-take-all finale of the first-round series in Riverside. The Olympians had defeated Riverside and split their first two games with Santa Barbara. Infielder Kerim Orucevic went 5-for-13 in the four games with two home runs and seven RBIs.