San Diego College Baseball : Aztecs Drop a Pair in Hawaii

SAN DIEGO — Steve Montejano threw away a double-play grounder in the bottom of the 10th inning Friday night to give the University of Hawaii a 6-5 victory over San Diego State in the first game of a Western Athletic Conference doubleheader in Honolulu.

Hawaii won the second game, 9-0, to sweep the first three games of this weekend’s four-game series. The final game will be played today (5 p.m., KSVD AM-1000) in Honolulu.

In Friday’s opener, SDSU scored twice in the top of the seventh to tie the score, 5-5, and force extra innings. Lance Pinnell’s sacrifice fly provided the tying run.

Joey Vierra (3-3) shut out the Aztecs over the next four innings and picked up the victory when Montejano committed his third error of the game in the 10th.

In the second game, Norman Holt pitched a four-hit shutout to give Hawaii (14-1, 34-16) a six-game lead over the Aztecs (8-7, 27-23-1) with nine conference games remaining.

In Saturday play:

University of San Diego 3-9, Cal State Sacramento 4-4--Sean Baron hit his 15th home run of the season, a three-run shot in the first, to help the Toreros split a home doubleheader. Robbie Rogers had a two-run double in the nightcap for USD (28-18-1). Sacramento (32-19) won the first game behind the combined six-hit pitching of Reid Gunter and Mike Frame.

UC San Diego 12-8, Menlo College 2-0--Bob Natal went 4 for 4 with two home runs in the first game and 3 for 5 with an RBI in the second to help the Tritons (24-11) run their winning streak to seven games at Menlo Park. Kyle Abbott (6-1) pitched five innings to gain the victory in the opener, and Mike Morgan pitched a seven-hit shutout in the nightcap.

United States International University 9, Grand Canyon College 6--Ron Green had three hits and three RBIs and Ron Howard added three hits to lead the Gulls (27-24-1) at home. Roddy Wilburn pitched 7 innings for the victory. Corey Way retired the final five batters for his fifth save.

Azusa Pacific 9-6, Point Loma Nazarene 1-3--Mark Weber pitched a three-hitter in the first game and Azusa (27-19) went on to the sweep at home. Steve Wainwright hit a home run for Point Loma’s run in the opener, and Steve Ronds drove in all three Crusader runs in the nightcap.