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Utah Eliminates San Diego State with 1-0 Victory at 2008 Phillips 66 MWC Baseball Championship Utah advances to face UNLV in 3 p.m. elimination game.
May 22, 2008 FORT WORTH, Texas - John James (4-7) threw the first complete game shutout of his career to carry Utah to a 1-0 victory over San Diego State in the first game on Thursday at the 2008 Phillips 66 Mountain West Conference Baseball Championship in Fort Worth, Texas. The No. 5 seed Utes (25-27) eliminated the No. 3 seed Aztecs (31-28) to advance to play UNLV at 3 p.m. Thursday. The game started out as a pitchers' duel as neither team plated a runner through the first two innings. James struck out the side in the bottom of the first. Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Year Stephen Strasburg (8-3) was able to match James' effort with some help from his defense, as Aztec shortstop Troy Hanzawa ranged to his left to throw out Utah center fielder Tyler Relf to end the top half of the second. The Utes got on the board in the top of the third as they put runners on first and second with one out. After a pop out to shortstop, Dustin Hennis singled to center just outside the reach of Aztec centerfielder Brandon Glover who was injured on the play. Hennis' single brought home Corey Shimada to give the Utes the lead. Moments later, Cody Guymon was thrown out at home attempting to advance on a wild pitch to end the rally. Utah received some defensive help in the bottom of the inning from right fielder Fred Ferguson, who dove and bobbled the ball in his glove before finally trapping the ball between his neck and shoulder for the out. The Utes threatened again in the fifth, as Nick Kuroczko led off the inning with a single up the middle. He reached as far as third before catcher Jesse Shriner flied out to center to end the frame. Strasburg did his part on the mound, at one point retiring eight straight batters. Strasburg went seven innings, allowing one run on five hits while striking out five and walking three. In his previous meeting against the Utes this season, he went the distance striking out a conference record 23 batters without allowing a run. The story of the day was James who posted a season high in innings and strikeouts, with nine each. Coming into the day his previous bests were 7 2/3 innings and five strikeouts. He had previously held an opponent scoreless in five innings against Southern Utah on March 8.
James retired the last eight batters he faced. For the day, he allowed just four hits and four walks. His outing was the best turned in by any pitcher in the Mountain West Tournament, edging out San Diego State's Nate Solow who threw 8 2/3 innings of shutout ball.
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