Aztecs own Battle of Black and Blue

Things were looking up following an impressive opening weekend when the Toreros took three of four from the defending Big Ten Tournament champions,the Indiana Hoosiers.
But that all quickly turned south this past week for the USD baseball team. The Toreros suffered a shocking loss last Tuesday against Cal State Northridge, a game they expected to win heading into the annual Black & Blue Series with crosstown rival San Diego State University.
Despite jumping out to an early 1-0 lead in game one the team let the game get away and they dropped their third straight contest in a 5-2 loss to the Aztecs.
After the first two innings breezed by without either team recording a base runner, Torero third baseman Victor Sanchez hit a one-out home run in the top of the third inning to give USD the early 1-0 lead.
The only problem? The offense was never able to get going, and things fell apart for starting pitcher A.J Griffin in the bottom half of the seventh. He was pulled from the game and sophomore Chris Jensen came in on relief in hopes of keeping the Aztecs lead to one.  All hopes slipped away when Jensen allowed a three run home run to the first batter he faced and the lead swelled to 5-1, dropping the Toreros to a dissapointing 3-3.
All of the weight fell on the shoulders of sophomore sensation Sammy Solis as the series shifted to Cunningham Stadium for game two of the series. The young lefty responded beautifully to the challenge, as he tossed a gem in which he did not allow a run over six strong innings of work.
Solis struck out four Aztecs over the first three innings of work to keep SDSU at bay. It was after a Nick McCoy single up the middle to lead off the bottom half of the third when James Meador connected on a high drive to left field that had just enough carry to it to give the Toreros the 2-0 lead.
After a seventh inning of relief by Matt Hauser, Matt Thompson came on in relief looking for his second save of the season. He got it by allowing just two hits in his two innings of work, and the Toreros ended their three game losing skid, and improving to 4-3 on the season.
The series was all set to shift back to Tony Gwynn Stadium at SDSU, but the rain came and forced a postponement. The rain-out meant that Sunday’s game at Cunningham Stadium would be the rubber match of the series. The Toreros looked to have cured their offensive woes as they built a 4-0 lead in the fifth inning.
Meador continued to lead the offense with an RBI single in the third and an RBI double in the fifth.  He finished the game 3-4 with three RBI and one run scored.
But things fell apart in the seventh.With the game tied, the Torero offense was never able to regain control, and in the top of the ninth, the Aztecs capitalized on two huge USD errors en route to a five run inning, putting the game out of reach. The Aztecs went on to a 9-5 victory.
Coach Rich Hill said of the series, “I thought it was just a very well-played series by SDSU. They deserved to win. In baseball, the team that deserves to win usually does.”
This may not be the most satisfying answer to Torero fans, who came in to the season expecting more than .500 baseball through the first eight games. But Hill expects his guys to turn it around as the season goes along.
“We just need to do a better job of getting prepared on game day,” Hill said. “We need to pay attention to execution and work on staying in the moment, and we should be fine.”