Aztecs caught a cold break

Tuesday, May 25, 2004 | 10:29 a.m.

COACH: Tony Gwynn, second season.

MWC SEED: No. 1. Will meet the BYU-Utah winner at 3 p.m. Thursday.

RECORD: 33-27, 19-9 MWC.

ONE TO WATCH: RHP Scott Shoemaker (6-1, 3.95 ERA, 52 strikeouts in 54 2/3 innings).

DID YOU KNOW? Aztecs coach Tony Gwynn also was a two-time all-Western Athletic Conference point guard at SDSU.

New Mexico LOBOS

COACH: Rich Alday, 15th season.

MWC SEED: No. 2. Will meet the UNLV-Air Force winner at 11 a.m. Thursday.

RECORD: 24-27-1, 20-10 MWC.

ONE TO WATCH: OF/P Joe Salas (.354, 10 HRs, 39 RBIs; 4-0, 3.42 ERA, 4 saves, 33 strikeouts in 26 1/3 innings).

DID YOU KNOW? Coach Rich Alday was named No. 40 on the Arizona Daily Star's list of Tucson's top 50 athletic figures of the 20th century.

UNLV REBELS

COACH: Buddy Gouldsmith, first season.

MWC SEED: No. 3. Will meet Air Force at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

RECORD: 33-22, 20-10 MWC.

ONE TO WATCH: OF Eric Nielsen (.459, 13 HRs, 57 RBIs).

DID YOU KNOW? Rebels assistant coach Chad Sutter is the son of 1979 NL Cy Young Award winner Bruce Sutter.

Brigham Young COUGARS

COACH: Vance Law, fifth season.

MWC SEED: No. 4. Will meet Utah at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

RECORD: 28-28, 18-12.

ONE TO WATCH: OF Kory Knell (.381, 5 HRs, 26 RBIs).

DID YOU KNOW? Vern Law, a former NL Cy Young winner and father of BYU coach Vance Law, was the first member of the Mormon church who went on to become a professional athlete.

Utah UTES

COACH: Tim Esmay, eighth season.

MWC SEED: No. 5. Will meet Brigham Young at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

RECORD: 21-34, 11-19 MWC.

ONE TO WATCH: OF Matt Ciaramella (.383, 7 HRs, 33 RBIs, 18 2Bs).

DID YOU KNOW? A former Arizona State Sun Devil, coach Tim Esmay served a five-year apprenticeship under Jim Brock at ASU.

Air Force FALCONS

COACH: Mike Hutcheon, first year.

MWC SEED: No. 6. Will meet UNLV at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

RECORD: 5-47, 0-28 MWC.

ONE TO WATCH: IF Karl Bolt (.358).

DID YOU KNOW? The Falcons are mired in a 33-game losing streak.

* Statistics used are for MWC games only.

You've heard the one about all things being equal?

Well, it doesn't apply to this week's Mountain West Conference baseball tournament, thanks to Mother Nature's nasty curveball.

San Diego State enters the tournament at Wilson Stadium as the No. 1 seed, and Tony Gwynn's crew probably deserves it after closing out the regular season with five consecutive victories.

But the Aztecs (19-9), victimized by inclement weather at Air Force, also played two fewer games than New Mexico and UNLV, which tied for second at 20-10.

The MWC standings published on the conference Web site show the Lobos and Rebels finishing a game behind the Aztecs, which is wrong. The teams essentially tied for first, although San Diego State is technically ahead by percentage points (.679 to .667).

Given that Air Force is mired in a 33-game losing streak, it's likely the Aztecs would have won the two canceled games. (The teams had met earlier in San Diego, which precluded making up the games there.) That would have given SDSU a 21-9 record -- and a true one-game edge on New Mexico and UNLV in the standings.

But then, if you can't assume a double play, as any official scorer knows, it follows that there should be no guarantees before a game is played.

"You just never know," UNLV coach Buddy Gouldsmith said. "With the law of averages, Air Force could win a game. But my hats are off to them (the Aztecs). They could have just as easily been 21-9 as as 19-9. That's just the way our league sets up."

Gouldsmith was quick to add that the Rebels aren't complaining, especially not after blowing a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning at New Mexico on Saturday that cost them the regular-season championship and a coveted first-round bye in the MWC tournament.

But as he pointed out, San Diego State could have just as easily run into bad weather in Salt Lake City or Provo. Then what?

And with the MWC considering abolishing the home-and-away schedule format when Texas Christian joins the league in 2006, there won't be an opportunity to make up any games as per the current rules.

"Unless some of those teams erect a dome," Gouldsmith joked.

Barring that, the weather situation will probably get worse before it gets better.

"That's one of the hurdles we face," MWC assistant commissioner Bob Burda said. "The teams in our league have such divergent baseball operation budgets -- some teams don't have financial resources to travel back and make up games.

"The problem we ran into this year is that the cold weather teams all went on the road during March. Then when everybody came (north), we got our March weather in April."

The regular-season championship wasn't the only situation affected by the weather. Brigham Young and Air Force played three consecutive doubleheaders last weekend to make up for losing an entire series at Colorado Springs, and it hardly seems fair that those teams will start the MWC tournament with a bunch of sore and tired arms.

And then there's the so-called BYU rule, which prohibits the Cougars from playing on Sunday due to their affiliation with the Mormon church. While nobody's complaining too loudly about that one, it does result in a short week that alters pitching rotations.

So it would appear the MWC coaches will have a lot to talk about at their conference meetings, although the scheduling and related issues will be put on the back burner when the double-elimination tournament gets under way Wednesday.

BYU, the No. 4 seed, will tangle with Beehive State rival and No. 5 seed Utah at 11 a.m., followed by Air Force vs. UNLV at 3 p.m. The losers will square off at 7 p.m. in an elimination game.

The consensus is that with only two games separating San Diego State, New Mexico, UNLV and BYU in the regular-season standings, any one of the four could win and earn the league's automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. And even the lower seeds have been known to make some noise in this event, as Air Force made it to the championship game as a No. 6 seed in 2002.