San Diego State Splits a Pair in Riverside Tournament

Right fielder Ron Vanegas capped a San Diego State University comeback with a game-winning, fourth-inning single Monday as SDSU beat the Air Force Academy, 11-7, on the first day of the Riverside Baseball Invitational at UC Riverside. The Aztecs (26-12) lost to Oregon State, 4-3, in a game played earlier in the day.

The Aztecs trailed Air Force, 6-5, after four innings. They tied the game on a fielder’s choice by first baseman Mark Grace and went ahead on Vanegas’ single. Vanegas was 3 for 5 with two RBIs. Left fielder Deron Johnson was also 3 for 5.

Bill Blount (5-1) started for the Aztecs and went five innings, allowing six runs, to pick up the win. Paul Claes pitched the final four innings and earned his fourth save of the season.

In the first game of the doubleheader, Oregon State center fielder Derek Hellar singled home the winning run in ninth inning to snap a 3-3 tie. Left-hander John Sipple (3-0) pitched a complete game for Oregon State, allowing the Aztecs six hits. Aztec Steve Hill has two of those hits, including a first inning home run.

In other action on the tournament’s opening day, Harvard beat the Air Force Academy, 24-1 and Riverside beat Missouri, 11-5.

The eight-team tournament continues through Saturday with each team playing seven games in a round-robin format. The eight teams are divide into a Blue Division (Harvard, Missouri, San Diego State and Arizona State) and a Gold Division (Oregon State, UCLA, Riverside and Air Force), with the teams in each division with the best record after the round-robin play meeting in the championship game on Saturday night.

Mickey Maspons hit two home runs on Monday to power Harvard to its victory over Air Force. Harvard, which hit five homers in the contest, scored 11 runs in the seventh inning to break the game open and was led by Maspons, Bob Kay and Scott Vierra, who each had three hits.

Riverside’s Dion Noonan doubled home two runs to highlight a nine-run seventh inning that broke the game open in its win against Missouri.

San Diego State (25-11) is ranked 18th in the nation in the latest ESPN-Collegiate Baseball poll. Miami has held on to first place for a second straight week. The Hurricanes (34-6), whose 24-game winning streak ended Sunday in a 10-inning loss to Maine, have committed only 32 errors this season.

Oklahoma (21-1), winner of 17 straight, moved up to second place, replacing Texas (32-5), which fell to sixth. Also moving up one notch were No. 3 Stanford (22-6), No. 4 Mississippi State (18-4) and No. 5 Arkansas (22-5). Pepperdine (22-6-1) stayed in seventh, Florida (25-5) improved from ninth to eighth, Wichita State (31-4) climbed from 11th to 9th and Oklahoma State (17-6-1) jumped from 12th to 10th.