San Diego State snapped its eight-game losing skid with a series win over San Jose State in the first weekend of conference play.

After inclement weather pushed back Friday’s game, Omar Serrano took the hill for Shaun Cole’s Aztecs in Game One of the Saturday doubleheader.

Destined to start Mountain West competition on the right foot, Serrano pitched a complete game while only surrendering one run and striking out eight Spartan batters.

To couple Serrano’s best start of the season, the Aztec batters awoke from their previous funk to muster 16 runs, powered by a six-run first inning and seven runs crossing the plate in the fifth.

Daniel Arambula led SDSU hitters with five RBIs, with four coming on a grand slam in the bottom of the first inning.

Zane Kelly, Evan Sipe, CJ Moran, and Johnathan Smith all added two RBIs a piece to power the Aztecs to a 16-1 mercy-rule victory that ended after seven innings.

Looking to keep the momentum in Game Two, Cole turned to Marko Sipila, who has been a reliable option in the early season.

On the heels of Serrano’s complete game, Sipila turned in eight innings of work while only giving up four runs. Sipila’s eight innings and eight strikeouts were both season highs for the transfer from the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.

Behind Sipila’s eight frames of work, the Aztecs got another boost from Arambula, who cranked another home run, a two-run shot, and added another RBI on a single in the bottom of the first.

Arambula’s efforts were recognized earlier this morning by receiving Mountain West Freshman of the Week honors.

The Aztecs also manufactured runs in the most modest of ways, scoring three runs on an RBI groundout, a wild pitch, and a sacrifice fly in order to jump out to a 6-2 lead.

While the Aztecs surrendered two runs in the top of the ninth, Xavier Cardenas, the normal Saturday starter, embraced a new role as the closer and shut the door on the Spartans to earn his first save of the season and power SDSU to a 6-4 victory.

On Sunday, the Aztecs simply ran out of gas on both ends of the ball. Despite two-hit performances from Nevan Noonan and Moran, SDSU was only able to scrap two runs together, which simply wasn’t enough as San Jose State erupted in the middle third of the game to jump out to a 7-0 lead.

Garvery Rumary was the starter for the Aztecs and put together a solid outing, striking out seven and only giving up two earned runs in 5.2 innings. It was the Scarlett and Black’s bullpen, however, that gave up six runs in 3.1 innings of work. This sank SDSU’s chances of a conference play sweep, as the Spartans claimed a 10-2 victory.

Next up, SDSU travels to Riverside to take on Cal Baptist in a midweek showdown this Tuesday, March 18, before traveling to Pullman, Washington, for a three-game set against the Washington State Cougars.

Liam Farrell

Liam has been covering the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team for the last two years, while being a Journalism student at San Diego State University. He is joining the staff to primarily cover the Aztec’s baseball team in addition to the men’s and women’s basketball teams.