LA JOLLA, Calif. ? The UC San Diego baseball team came from behind to defeat the San Francisco Gators 6-5 in 11 innings on Sunday afternoon at Triton Baseball Field. After the Gators took a 5-4 lead in the top-half of the 11th, UCSD's Chris Hom tied it with a pinch-hit double and Matt Lawson won it with a hit to the right center gap. Lawson finished the day going 4-for-6 with a homerun and double and three RBI. With the win, UCSD improves to 16-8, 8-4 CCAA, while SFSU drops to 3-17, 2-10 CCAA.
SFSU's Russell Graham led off with a double and advanced to third on Ryan Richardson's sac bunt. UCSD's Nick Roedick then got the next two Gator batters without allowing Graham to score.
In the SFSU second, Larry Lewis led off with a single and advanced to second on a sac bunt. Ernie Munoz singled, driving in Lewis for the SFSU 1-0 lead.
SFSU's Eric Sturges homered in the fifth, giving the Gators a 2-0 lead. Richardson hit a two-out RBI double, giving the Gators a 3-0 advantage.
UCSD's Erickson reached, leading off the fifth on an error and would score an unearned run on Tim Mort's RBI double, bringing UCSD within 3-1. With two outs, Matt Lawson came through with a two-run homerun to leftfield, tying the game at 3-3.
SFSU's Ryan Hill led off with a double in the seventh, but the Tritons recorded the next three outs to end the inning still tied.
SFSU's Evan Romanchuk doubled with one out in the eighth. With two gone, Munoz hit a go-ahesd single giving the Gators a 4-3 lead.
In the UCSD eighth, Lawson led off with a double to left and Morehead singled to put runners on the corners with no outs. Garrett Imeson singled, driving in Lawson to tie the game at 4-4.
In extra innings, SFSU was the first to score first in the 11th inning. With runners on the corners with two outs, a UCSD failed pick-off attempt into foul territory gave the Gators the lead at 5-4 on an unearned run.
In the bottom of the 11th, John Roth led off with a single and ended up on second after the centerfielder bobbled the ball. With one out, Jonathan Erickson hit a bunt single to put runners on the corners. Chris Hom then came on to pinch hit and found the right center gap, scoring Roth and putting runners on second and third with the score tied at 5-5. After Albitz was intentionally walked, Cantele was retired. This set up Lawson's at-bat as he drove the pitch to the right center ally for the walk-off hit, giving the Tritons the sweep.
Trevor Decker recorded one out and earned his second win of the series, after winning game one as the starting pitcher on Friday.
UCSD is back in action on Thursday, March 15 when it travels to take on Cal State San Bernardino. First pitch is slated for 3:00 p.m.
