BASEBALL BEATS AIR FORCE ON MILLER'S WALK-OFF SINGLE TO LEFT FIELD
4/15/2011
The Hornets' dugout emptied after Blake MIller's walk-off single to beat Air Force on Friday.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Down 1-0 entering the bottom of the ninth inning, the Sacramento State baseball team rallied on Friday at John Smith Field to beat Air Force, 2-1, and record their second walk-off win of the season.
Kirby Young also hit a walk-off single to beat UC Davis, 3-2, on Feb. 21.
The Hornets improve to 10-24 on the season while Air Force falls to 13-20. Karl Maas (3-3) earned his team-best third win of the season with one of his best outings of the season. The senior from Tracy, Calif., pitched a complete game with just one run on seven hits and four strikeouts.
Down one run with just three outs left, the Hornets put together three hits to score two runs and win the game in exhilarating fashion.
Young led off the inning with a single through the right side. David Del Grande's line out to center was the first out of the inning but the Hornets would not record another.
In the next at-bat, Andrew Ayers blasted a double off the fence in left and Young came all the way around from first to score, just barely beating the throw home. With the game tied up 1-1, Air Force brought in Stephen Colangelo for Evan Abrecht (5-4), who took the loss after allowing two runs on six hits with four strikeouts.
With a new pitcher on the mound, A.J. Nunez pinch hit and took a walk on a 3-2 pitch. That brought up Blake Miller, who lined a single into left field, easily scoring Ayers from second to win the game and snap a four-game losing streak.
Young went 2-for-4 to lead the Hornets who also got hits from Del Grande, Ayers, Miller, Will Soto and Eli Davis.
Sacramento State and Air Force will meet at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow for a doubleheader. The final game of the four-game series is at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Sacramento State 2, Air Force 1 (Apr 15, 2011 at Sacramento, Calif.)
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Air Force........... 100 000 000 - 1 7 0 (13-20)
Sacramento State.... 000 000 002 - 2 7 2 (10-24)
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Pitchers: Air Force - ABRECHT, Evan; COLANGELO, Stephen(9). Sacramento State - Maas, Karl.
Win-Maas, Karl(3-3) Loss-ABRECHT, Evan(5-4) T-1:50 A-137
Weather: 68 degrees, partly cloudy
COLANGELO faced 2 batters in the 9th.
