Aztecs shut out again by Oregon State

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — San Diego State suffered its second straight shutout loss against No. 6-ranked Oregon State, falling 5-0 on Saturday afternoon at Tony Gwynn Stadium.

The teams were locked in a pitchers duel for the second straight game, with the contest scoreless through the first five innings. At that point, SDSU starting pitcher Ryan Doran had allowed three hits — singles in the first and fourth innings and a double in the second. Oregon State counterpart Andrew Moore allowed just one hit — a two-out double by Jake Romanski in the second inning — through five innings.

Oregon State (7-0) broke the game open in the sixth inning, scoring four runs on four hits and an error. Four of the first five batters in the inning singled off Doran (1-1), who departed with the score 1-0, the bases loaded and one out.

Aztecs reliever Justin Hepner walked the first two batters he faced, forcing in two runs to make it 3-0. SDSU catcher Jake Romanski then made a pickoff throw to third base, but the ball went through the glove of third baseman Ty France for an error. That allowed the Beavers' Jerad Casper to score and make it 4-0. Oregon State added one run in the eighth off the Aztecs' Travis Pitcher to complete the scoring.

No. 22-ranked SDSU (3-3) never could get anything going against Moore (2-0), who allowed just one other hit — a single to Tim Zier in the seventh — while striking out two without allowing a walk over 8.1 innings. Moore retired 13 straight batters in between Romanski's second-inning double and Zier's single. Oregon State's Tony Bryant came on to get the final two outs for the Beavers.

Oregon State pitchers have walked just one batter over 27 innings in the series' first three games. The Beavers won Friday night's game by a 2-0 score. It is the first time Oregon State has posted back-to-back shutouts since they did it to Rice at the 2006 at the College World Series.

SDSU and Oregon State conclude the four-game series Sunday at noon at Tony Gwynn  Stadium. The Aztecs are expected to send freshman right-hander Cody Thompson to the mound for his first collegiate start.