San Diego State Falls Victim to USIU, 7-1

Because of rainouts, San Diego State and U.S. International amended their baseball schedules to include Monday’s game at USIU. The Aztecs, hoping for an at-large bid in the NCAA playoffs should they falter in the Western Athletic Conference tournament, probably wish they hadn’t.

USIU’s Jeff Matranga scattered six singles and struck out 11 and the Gulls (14-37) defeated SDSU, 7-1.

Matranga, a right-handed junior, improved to 6-10. SDSU, which split four games with No. 13 Hawaii over the weekend, fell to 35-15.

It was the 2,500th game in SDSU history. Since 1936, the Aztecs are 1,592-882-26.

U.S. International’s Darrin Forster, a Santana High graduate, had a two-run home run and a run-scoring double in three at-bats. He also scored two runs. Sugiyama Takaaki was two for five with a double and two RBIs. Four San Diego State pitchers yielded 13 hits.

The Aztecs and Gulls meet again this afternoon at 2:30 at USIU.

COLLEGE SIGNINGS

Virgil Smith, a 6-foot-1 point guard from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, has signed a national letter-of-intent to play basketball at San Diego State.

Smith was FIT’s team captain and averaged 14 points and 10 assists a game last year. He attended Power Memorial High School, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s alma mater. He is the sixth player to sign with SDSU.