March 21, 2007
Complete SDSU Series Notes in PDF Format
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San Diego State (15-11) vs. Air Force (5-18, 0-3)
Dates: March 22-24; Thursday, March 22 and Friday, March 23 at 2 p.m., Saturday, March 24 at Noon
Site: Falcon Field - USAFA
Radio/Live Stats: www.goaztecs.com - Gametracker
The Coaches:
Mike Hutcheon is 30-149 in his 4th year at Air Force and 269-289 in his 13th year as a head coach.
Tony Gwynn is 128-143 in his 5th year at San Diego State and overall
Series History: SDSU leads 63-15
Pitching Probables W-L ERA G-GS IP K BB
3/22 SDSU Steve Hirschfeld - Jr. RHP 3-1 3.34 6-6 29.2 36 12
AFA Alex Truesdale - Fr. RHP 0-3 4.60 8-3 31.1 19 8
3/23 SDSU Bruce Billings - Sr. RHP 2-0 3.44 8-6 34.0 24 17
AFA Jake Petro - So. RHP 2-4 5.34 7-7 30.1 14 22
3/24 SDSU Lance Sewell - So. LHP 4-1 2.45 7-7 40.1 16 46
AFA Mitch Brown - Sr. RHP 1-5 5.30 8-6 35.2 20 10
Air Force Hosts San Diego State In Three-Game Set
Air Force baseball (5-18, 0-3) plays host to Hall of Fame Inductee Tony Gwynn and his San Diego State Aztecs (15-11) this Thursday-Sat, March 22-24, at Falcon Field. Live stats will be available for the series. Internet radio will also be available for the series at www.goaztecs.com.
The Last Time Out
Air Force was swept in a three-game set last weekend at defending Mountain West Conference Champion TCU. The Falcons dropped the first game 6-0 Friday and then lost 10-2 on Saturday. TCU completed the sweep with a 7-2 win Sunday.
The 2007 Falcons
Air Force enters the weekend with a 5-18 record. The Falcons are batting .237 as a team. Senior Karl Bolt leads the team with a .306 batting average, five homera and 17 RBI. The Falcon pitching staff has a 7.35 staff earned run average. Senior Mitch Brown anchors the staff with a 1-5 record in six starts this year. Brown leads the Falcons with 35.2 innings pitched, to go with 20 strikeouts and a 5.30 ERA. Air Force is fielding .946 as a team, ranking sixth in the conference.
The 2006 Falcons
Air Force went 10-38 in 2006 and 1-21 in Mountain West Conference play, finishing seventh in the conference. The team's leading hitter was team MVP Karl Bolt, who led the team in nearly every statistical category, batting .314 with nine home runs and 30 RBI. AFA's top pitcher was Mitch Brown. Brown led the team in nearly every pitching category, going 3-10 with 51 strikeouts in 71.2 innings and posted a 5.65 earned run average.
Scouting San Diego State
San Diego State enters the weekend with a 15-11 record. SDSU's head coach is 2007 Major League Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Tony Gwynn. The Aztecs went 3-0 over the weekend, sweeping UCLA in a three-game set. SDSU is batting .255 as a team, led by junior shortstop Troy Hanzawa, who is batting .340 with 20 runs scored. The Aztec pitching staff has a 3.64 staff ERA. Sophomore left-hander Lance Sewell has led the way for SDSU so far with a 4-1 record. Sewell has 46 strikeouts in 40.1 innings pitched and sports a 2.45 ERA.
Air Force-SDSU Connections
- Air Force has nine players on its team hailing from California.
Matt Alexander - Oak Park (Oak Park HS)
Karl Bolt - Stockton (Lincoln)
Tom Bowen - Alameda (Miramonte)
Addison Gentry - Roseville (Roseville)
David Miller - Norco (Norco)
K.J. Randhawa - Fairfield (Vacaville Christian)
Dan Richardson - Bakersfield (Liberty)
Mike Ruvolo - Blue Jay (La Habra)
Spencer Tate - Escondido (Poway)
- Mike Koons is the lone SDSU player from Colorado. Koons hails from Castle Rock and attended Douglas County HS.
Series History vs. SDSU
- SDSU leads the all-time series vs. Air Force 63-15.
- The Aztecs swept the Falcons in a three-game set in 2006 and also defeated them at the MWC Championships.
- San Diego State has won 16 consecutive games against the Falcons.
- Air Force last defeated the Aztecs, 3-0, on April 26, 2003.
Perfect On The Basepaths Again
Against TCU, Air Force was a perfect 10-for-10 in stolen base attempts. This is the second three-game series in which the Falcons were perfect in steal attempts. The Falcons were 11-for-11 in the stolen base department against Northern Colorado.
Top Base Stealing Team In MWC
Air Force is averaging 2.0 stolen bases per game, the tops in the MWC. The Falcons have stolen 46 bases in 57 attempts, good for a 80.7 percent success rate. Against TCU on Saturday, the Falcons stole six bases. The team's season high is seven stolen bases in a game done against Kansas Wesleyan. Junior Chay Derbigny and sophomore Jason Griggs are tied for the team lead in swipes with eight. Nine Falcons have three-or-more stolen bases and six have four or more.
Rubber Arm Ruvolo
Freshman Michael Ruvolo leads the Falcons with 14 relief appearances so far in 23 games. Ruvolo appeared in all three games against TCU, holding the Frogs to just one earned run in five innings of work. Ruvolo has appeared in five of the last six game for AFA and has pitched in 60.8 percent of the teams' games. Ruvolo is currently on pace to appear in 33 games for the Falcons, which would tie the all-time single season mark for pitching appearances at the Academy.
Six Doubleheaders Already
The Falcons have already played six doubleheaders in 2007, going 3-9 in those games. The Falcons played seven doubleheaders in 2006. Air Force will play its seventh doubleheader this year on March 31 at Hawai'i-Hilo.
A Pair Of Two-Site Doubleheaders
It's rare enough for a team to play a two-site doubleheader any time, but the Falcons have already done so twice this year. Air Force played Navy in Millington, Tenn., during the morning of Feb. 23 and then, due to weather concerns for the next day, decided to play a second game in Memphis, Tenn., later that day. This past Friday, March 2, the Falcons took on Lewis-Clark State in Lewiston, Idaho at 2 p.m. and then traveled 40 minutes across the Washington border to take on Washington State in Pullman, Wash., at 7 p.m.
Bolt Hits For Cycle
Falcon senior Karl Bolt hit for the Cycle last Wednesday against Colorado Christian. In addition, the senior drove in four runs and scored three. It was the first cycle performance by a Falcon since Tony Shockley accomplished the feat on March 27, 2003 against Hawai'i. Bolt singled in the fourth, doubled in the sixth and hit a two-run homer in the eighth. The Stockton, Calif., native capped the day off by smacking a triple to the right-center gap.
Freshmen Making Immediate Impact
Featuring one of the youngest, if not the youngest, team in the nation, Air Force is relying heavily on its freshman class so far in 2007. Through the 20 games this season, the Falcons have started five-or-more freshmen 15 times and started six four times. Against Akron, the Falcons went with seven freshmen in the starting lineup. Freshmen Matt Alexander (CF) has played in all 23 games for the Falcons and is second on the team with three homers and 16 RBI. Ben Ausbun (3B) has started 22 games at third and K.J. Randhawa (SS) has 17 starts, 16 at short. Alex Truesdale (RHP) leads the team with a 4.60 ERA and is second on the team with 19 strikeouts. Addison Gentry has started 17 games at DH and leads the team with eight doubles and Daniel Walker stole three bases over the weekend at TCU.
Hitting/Offense Notes
• Air Force batted .170 in the three-game set with TCU.
• Daniel Walker led the way over the weekend, going .333 (4-for-12) with a double and three stolen bases.
• With his fith home run of the season vs. TCU, Karl Bolt has 30 career home runs, ranking him 10th all-time at the Academy.
• The Falcons stole 10 bases in 10 attempts vs. TCU, including six in Saturday's game.
• Addison Gentry and Chay Derbigny both had .500 on base percentages against TCU.
• Derbigny also stole three bases against TCU including two on Saturday.
Pitching Notes
• Air Force had a 7.12 ERA against TCU, allowing five fewer runs per game than the weekend before against Wright State.
• Michael Ruvolo pitched in three of the four Wright State games. He currently ranks fourth in the MWC with 14 appearances.
• Alex Truesdale has pitched at least six innings in all three of his starts.
• Joe Peterson ranks fifth in the conference with seven games finished.
• Casey Allen, David Miller and Adam Teach did not allow any runs in relief outings against TCU.
Defensive Notes
• The Falcons fielded .944 against TCU, committing six errors, which were five fewer than the Wright State series.
• First baseman Karl Bolt ranks third in the conference with 180 putouts.
• Freshmen Ben Ausbun ranks second with 73 and K.J. Randhawa ranks eighth in the conference with 53 assists.
• Air Force ranks third in the conference with 19 double plays turned.
Additional Notes
• The Falcons 5-4 win against Kansas Wesleyan took just one hour and 18 minutes to play. The Falcons played the doubleheader that day (14 innings total) in a combined three hours and 26 minutes.
• The three game series sweep of Kansas Wesleyan was the Falcons' first in four years. The Falcons last swept a three-game series against Hastings College in 2003.
• The Falcons stole seven bases against Kansas Wesleyan in the first game of the series.
Recapping the Wright State Series
In game one, Jake Arrieta and Taylor Cragin of TCU combined to hold Air Force to four base hits in a 6-0 loss for the Falcons Friday night in both teams' Mountain West Conference baseball opener Friday night at Lupton Stadium.
Arrieta (4-2) pitched eight innings, striking out 11 batters and allowing four hits. Cragin came on in relief in the ninth and pitched a scoreless inning.
The loss spoiled another strong start from freshman and Austin, Texas, native Alex Truesdale, who fell to 0-3 on the season. Truesdale had held TCU to just three runs through his first six innings before tiring in the seventh. Truesdale finished the day going 6.1 innings, allowing five runs on 10 hits, striking out two.
Freshman Michael Ruvolo pitched the last 1.2 innings in relief for the Falcons, allowing one unearned run.
TCU had 11 hits on the day, led by Keith Conlon, who went 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBI.
Air Force's had base hits from Karl Bolt, Chay Derbigny, Geno Salazar and Daniel Walker. Walker, a Grand Prairie, Texas, native also stole a base and Derbigny also tripled. Salazar doubled to lead off the game.
The Horned Frogs scored a pair of runs in the first and one in the third to go ahead 3-0. The score remained that way until TCU added two runs in the seventh and one more in the eighth.
In game two, TCU broke open a 1-1 tie with six unanswered runs to defeat Air Force 10-2 on Saturday.
After Air Force tied the game up 1-1 in the top of the fourth, TCU responded with three runs in the fourth, two in the fifth and one in the sixth to jump ahead 7-1.
The Falcons responded with a run in the seventh but the Frogs came right back with three runs in the eighth to pad their lead.
TCU starter Chance Corgan improved to 3-1 on the season, holding the Falcons to one run on three hits in six innings while striking out seven. AFA starter Mitch Brown fell to 1-5 on the season, allowing six runs on nine hits in five innings.
The Falcons used three pitchers in relief. Michael Ruvolo made his fifth relief appearance in the last six games, going 1.1 innings. Adam Teach and Joe Peterson both pitched one-third innings each.
The Frogs had 13 hits in the game. Leadoff hitter Bryan Kervin led the way for TCU, going 3-for-5 with a run and RBI.
The Falcons had five hits in the game and had a field day on the base paths, stealing six bases. Chay Derbigny stole a pair of bases and doubled for AFA. Addison Gentry also doubled for the Falcons. Ben Ausbun and Daniel Walker had RBI-singles for the Falcons and Geno Salazar had a single.
In game three, Air Force lost 7-2.
TCU scored the first seven runs in the game and coasted to the 7-2 win. Frogs' starter Chris Johnson (3-2) picked up the win, holding the Falcons scoreless through 5.2 innings on four hits and seven strikeouts.
Air Force starter and San Antonio, Texas, native Jake Petro (2-5) took the loss, allowing seven runs, five earned, in 4.2 innings. Petro gave up six hits and struck out three.
TCU had 10 hits in the game. Bryan Kervin, Corey Steglich and Andrew Walker had two hits apiece for the Frogs.
Air Force had eight hits in the game with senior Karl Bolt and freshman Daniel Walker both going 2-for-4. Bolt hit his fifth homer of the year and doubled, while Walker, K.J. Randhawa and Geno Salazar also hit doubles.
TCU scored two runs in the first and second innings and added a third to go ahead 5-0 after three innings. The Horned Frogs tacked on two more in the fifth to go ahead 7-0.
Air Force made it a 7-1 game in the eighth as Bolt tagged a solo homer. The Falcons scored a run in the ninth, as Randhawa doubled to score Erol Kelter.
The Falcons used three relievers in the game, including freshman Michael Ruvolo for the fourth consecutive game. Ruvolo tossed two scoreless innings. Casey Allen got the lone batter he faced out and David Miller tossed a scoreless eighth inning.
Up Next
The following day after the SDSU series, the Falcons hop on a plane Sunday and head to the big island of Hawai'i where they play Hawai'i-Hilo five times over the course of Spring Break week. AFA plays the Vulcans Tuesday, March 27 at 7 p.m. and Wednesday at 6 p.m. The two teams return to action Friday at 3 p.m. and conclude the series on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at Noon.
Season Standing Notes
• Ausbun Named To All-Tournament Team - Freshman third baseman Ben Ausbun was named to the 2007 Service Academies Spring Classic All-Tournament team. The Puyallup, Wash., native batted .455 in the three games (5-for-11), scoring two runs and driving in one. Ausbun had three hits combined in the two games against Navy and also had a pair of hits against Akron.
• Bolt Brothers Battle In Millington - When Air Force took on Navy at the Service Academies Springs Classic at USA Stadium in Millington, Tenn., brothers Karl and Kendall Bolt faced each other for the first time. Karl, a senior outfielder at Air Force and Kendall, a freshman shortstop at Navy, are both products of Lincoln HS in Stockton, Calif. Kendall got the better of the brothers, as Navy took both games of the series with Kendall scoring the go-ahead run in the first game.
• Falcon Brotherhood - Falcon sophomore right-hander Jake Petro is the second Petro to play for the Falcons. Older brother, Dan Petro, played for the Falcons from 2000-03 and was an all-conference catcher in `03.
• Falcons Tabbed 7th in MWC Preseason Poll -The Air Force Falcon baseball team was tabbed to finish seventh in the Mountain West Conference as voted by the seven head coaches and select media. TCU, the defending conference champion, was selected to finish first, followed by San Diego State in second and BYU in third. UNLV followed up in fourth, New Mexico in fifth and Utah in sixth.
• Closing in on 500 - The Falcons are two wins away from 500 wins all-time at Falcon Field. Air Force is 498-373 all-time at Falcon Field.
• Finally, some lefties - After several years of just having one or two left-handers on the team, Air Force features seven players that can either hit or throw from the left side. Four batters and three pitchers hit and throw from the odd side and will give Mike Hutcheon some strategic possibilities.
