LA JOLLA, Calif. - The UC San Diego baseball team won its eighth straight in defeating Cal State Monterey Bay 9-6 on Sunday afternoon at Triton Baseball Field. UCSD jumped out to an 8-0 lead and withstood a six-run seventh inning by the Otters. Byron Grubman earned the win (8-4) pitching six shutout innings. Scott Clement homered and tripled and had a team-high three RBI. The Tritons (34-22, 23-13 CCAA) earned the No. 2 seed in the four-team CCAA Baseball Tournament beginning on Thursday, May 11. The Tritons will face No. 3 seed Cal State L.A. at 7:00 p.m.
Jonathan Erickson led the UCSD third off with a single and advanced to second on Josh Tanner's sac bunt. Damian Fante then extended his hitting streak to 16 games with an RBI single to left field to put UCSD ahead 1-0. Scott Clement then homered to left field, driving in Fante and UCSD went ahead 3-0.
With two outs and Garrett Imeson on third, Erickson doubled to right field, putting the Tritons ahead 4-0 through four.
In the UCSD fifth with one out, Matt Cantele singled through the right side. Clement then tripled to straight away center, scoring Cantele and put UCSD ahead 5-0.
In the UCSD sixth, David Gomez reached on an error and stole second base. With one out, Gomez then stole third base and scored on John Roth's triple. Erickson then singled up the middle for an RBI, his third hit of the game and UCSD led 7-0. Fante then doubled down the left field line, driving in Erickson for the 8-0 lead.
CSUMB loaded the bases with one out in the seventh. The first Otters run scored on a balk and two more runs scored on an RBI sinlge by Garrett Lyons as CSUMB pulled within 8-3. A two out triple by David Quintana drove in two more runs and UCSD led 8-5. Rommell then sinlged through the left side for an RBI bringing the Otters within 8-6.
In the UCSD eighth, Roth led off with a double down the left field line and advanced to third on Erickson's flyball. Josh Tanner then came through with an RBI single to center, extending the Triton lead to 9-6.
Scott Clement went 2-for-4 with a triple and homerun with three RBI. Damian Fante, David Gomez, John Roth and Jonathan Erickson all had multi-hit games.
The game was the last at Triton Baseball field for seniors Brendan Kruse, Dusty Destler, T.C. Geach, Jose Navarro, Byron Grubman, Damian Fante, David Gomez and Ryan Leake.
