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Baseball: Air Force drops 21-10 slugfest to San Diego State

by Nick Arseniak

The big innings continue to haunt the Air Force baseball team (5-20, 0-5) as San Diego State (17-11, 2-0) utilized two big innings to down the Falcons, 21-10, in a marathon Mountain West Conference game that lasted three hours and fifty minutes at Falcon Field March 23.

San Diego State had 21 hits in the game, six for extra base hits. Leadoff hitter Brandon Glover went 5-for-7 on the day with three runs and three RBI. Brandon Decker and Troy Hanzawa also homered for the Aztecs.

The Falcons had 16 hits in the game, led by Karl Bolt and Matt Alexander. Bolt went 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBI while Alexander went 4-for-6 with a double and three RBI. Addison Gentry also collected two hits for the Falcons and hit his first-career home run.

SDSU reliever Nate Solow (2-1) picked up the win, holding the Falcons scoreless in three innings pitched. The Falcons roughed up Aztec starter Bruce Billings for seven runs on 10 hits in 3.2 innings of work.

Falcon reliever Mike Ruvolo (0-2) turned in a gutsy effort in relief, but was tagged with the loss for the second day in a row. Ruvolo went six innings, allowing fiver runs, three earned. Air Force starter Mitch Brown ran into control problems and lasted just one-plus inning, allowing five runs off three hits and three walks.

Air Force jumped ahead 3-0 in the first but San Diego State came right back with seven runs in the second. After the Falcons scored two runs in the second to make it a 7-5 game, SDSU added two more runs in the third to go ahead 9-5.

The Falcons clawed their way back with two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth to make it a 9-8 game. The Aztecs scored a run in the sixth to make it a 10-8 game.

Air Force rallied to tie the game with two runs in the seventh to make it a 10-10 game.

The tie did not last for long as San Diego State jumped ahead with three runs in the eighth and blew the game open with eight runs in the ninth.

The Falcons tied their season-high for runs in a game and had its second-highest hit output for the season. Erol Kelter and K.J. Randhawa both had two hits and two runs scored apiece for the Falcons.

Air Force and San Diego State wrap up the series at noon March 24.

Source: U.S. Air Force

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