The San Diego State Aztecs are exuding a vibe that is catching recruits’ attention both on and off the field.

The latest is Travon Garrison, a 1,000-yard receiver at Damien High in La Verne, who announced his commitment to the Aztecs on Tuesday afternoon. 

“I thank God for this opportunity. Grateful to all the coaches who helped me through this process. I’m excited to announce my commitment to San Diego State University!” he posted on X.

On3.com posted a picture of Garrison, some family members and SDSU coach Sean Lewis at Snapdragon Stadium. Garrison is wearing sunglasses and a sign in the picture reads, “Speed Limit None,” with the interlocking SD logo forming the “S” in Speed.

Why Travon Garrison committed to SDSU

“I’ve been on campus at San Diego State a lot,” Garrison said in an interview with on3.com. “Every time I go, I feel more comfortable, more at home. The city of San Diego is great, there’s a lot to do, the weather is nice and it feels like a place I can see myself living and growing in for the next few years.”

He added that he “really clicked well” with wideouts coach Matthew Middleton, and that he thinks he will “fit in really well with the offense. It’s very similar to what we run at Damien, so I feel comfortable with it and believe it will allow me to play fast and showcase my strengths.”

The 6-foot, 185-pound Garrison told the recruiting website that it was a tough decision after making official visits to SDSU and Washington State, which is part of the reconfigured Pac-12 that the Aztecs will officially join on July 1.

“I had to think about what was best for me, but in the end San Diego State felt like home,” Garrison told on3.com. “Everything about the program, the coaches, and the environment made it the right place for me.”

The three-star had an impressive list of offers that, besides SDSU and WSU, included bids from Kansas, UCLA, Washington, Utah, West Virginia and Colorado State.

As a junior, he had 46 passes for 978 yards and 13 touchdowns. He had four 100-yard games and one three-touchdown game. 

How Garrison could fit in at SDSU

Garrison is at least the fifth wideout from the class of 2027 to commit to the Aztecs, which should make for some lively competition a year from now. 

The Aztecs currently have an intriguing wide receiver room. Although the group was hit by injuries last year, when the Aztecs had an impressive turnaround season that ended with a 9-4 record, they do return all three starters and their top four pass catchers.

The most eye-catching development in spring was when Bert Emanuel Jr. switched from backup quarterback to wide receiver. That will allow him to showcase his big-play skills while sharing the field with returning starting quarterback Jayden Denegal. They are both seniors. 

The wideout corps is senior-heavy. 

The Padres have a serious issue in their starting rotation.

That reality brazenly slapped them in the face again Tuesday.

And then it became a side story, at least for the night.

That is how crazy things got at Petco Park.

The Padres beat the Braves 7-6 when Mason Miller worked two scoreless innings and Manny Machado grounded a walk-off single up the middle to score Jackson Merrill in the 10th inning.

“I think the most important part is just how the team fought today,” Machado said. “I think that was impressive, being down four and then coming back and winning that ball game and fighting to the end. I think that shows a lot about the team. We picked up each other. We picked Griff. Bullpen came in and did their job too.”

The game was decided eight innings after the Braves took a 4-0 lead and the Padres took a 5-4 lead.

That is correct. The craziness commenced when for the second time in five games the Padres were part of a runaway inning.

They were on the wrong side of an 11-run inning Friday in Texas when the Rangers responded with six runs in the bottom of the first inning after the Padres scored five at the start of what ended up a 9-7 loss.

On Tuesday, the Padres came out on top of a nine-run second inning.

Griffin Canning jogged in from the bullpen to start that inning after Wandy Peralta worked a scoreless first as the Padres’ opener.

Canning would get just two outs, allow four hits, hit a batter, walk another and allow three runs before he departed.

His 40th pitch completed a walk that loaded the bases. That drew more than a few boos from the seats and brought Craig Stammen from the dugout.

The game didn’t really get wild until a little bit after that.

Kyle Hart walked the next batter to make it 4-0 before ending the top of the second on a groundout.

That is how the bottom of the second began for the Padres as well.

And then six consecutive batters reached base, and they scored five runs against Braves starter JR Ritchie.

The comeback began with walks by Xander Bogaerts and Will Wagner before singles by Rodolfo Durán and Sung-Mun Song cut the Braves’ lead in half and a double by Fernando Tatis Jr. got the Padres to 4-3 and got Song to third base.

An infield single by Samad Taylor flipped the lead.

Song easily scored on Taylor’s grounder up the middle, and when Braves shortstop Mauricio Dubón bounced a throw that got past first baseman Matt Olson, Tatis raced around third and beat a throw home by Olson.

The Braves tied the game 5-5 in the fourth and retook the lead in the fifth.

Michael Harris II singled, went to second on a wild pitch by Hart and scored on Ozzie Albies’ double in the fourth. Dubón homered in the fifth off Yuki Matsui, who had come in to get the final out of the fourth and ended up working through the sixth, leaving the bases loaded in that inning.

Jackson Merrill missed a game-tying home run by a foot and instead got a double leading off the fifth inning when his fly ball to right field hit the top of the wall and bounced back to right fielder Mike Yastrzemski.

Merrill finished the inning at second after a fly ball out by Machado and strikeouts by Gavin Sheets and Bogaerts.

Tatis did not miss a home run as the first batter in the seventh, sending a sinker from Carlos Carrasco 406 feet to center field to tie the game 6-6.

David Morgan worked the seventh and Adrian Morejón the eighth before Miller threw just 11 pitches in the ninth and went back out for the 10th.

“One, we didn’t have a ton of bullpen left,” Stammen said of the decision to have Miller work a second inning . “And he’d been kind of asking me over the course of the season: ‘Hey, I got another one, come on, let me have it.’”

Austin Riley began the 10th by hitting a long fly ball to right field that moved the automatic runner from second to third before Miller struck out Rowdy Tellez and ended the inning by getting a groundout from Eli White.

“It definitely goes a long way,” Miller said, “when you empty everybody out early and you have another game tomorrow, being able to carry two innings there and keep two guys fresh for tomorrow and give us a chance to win again tomorrow as well.”

Merrill was the runner on second to start the bottom of the 10th after he made the final out in the ninth. Machado walked to the plate against Raisel Iglesias, the Braves closer, who had also worked the ninth.

“Looking for a strike,” Machado said. “He’s a strike thrower, one of the best in the game right now. So just trying to be aggressive on that first pitch, something I can drive. Don’t really need much, just just a base hit to score Jackson. So just trying to hit it hard somewhere.”

No matter the result, the Padres are left to figure out what to do about Canning, whose ERA swelled to 7.38 after he yielded his ninth multi-run inning among the 45 innings he has begun for the Padres this season.

He is but one of the flat tires on the rotation bus.

The Padres got seven shutout innings from Michael King in a 1-0 victory over the Braves on Monday. It was the first time a Padres starter went seven innings since King did it on May 18 and just the third quality start by a Padres pitcher in 24 games.

The members of the starting rotation, including the two times Canning has worked after an opener and the two times Lucas Giolito has done so, have a combined 4.76 ERA over the past 25 games.

But the Padres figured out how to win Tuesday, just the second time in a month they have won consecutive games.

“Griffin didn’t have his stuff like he wanted to,” said Taylor, who finished 3-for-4 with a walk. “But we fought. We’re going to keep fighting until the game is over. We fought. Got back in the game. Good at-bats, good pitching. And you leave it into Manny’s hands, he’s going to take over and win the game for us.”