PHOENIX, AZ ? The 14th-ranked UC San Diego baseball team slugged out 17 hits en route to a 12-8 victory over Grand Canyon at Brazell Stadium on Friday night. UCSD saw a 7-2 lead get cut down to two runs before scoring two more in the ninth inning to secure the win. Kirby St. John went 5.2 innings, improving to 5-0, while Keith Noe earned his team-best sixth save of the year. Matt Cantele went 4-for-5 with two RBI while Michael Benton also recorded four hits. With the win, UCSD improves to 25-7, while the Antelopes drop to 8-23.
The win was also head coach Dan O'Brien's 299th of his career.
UC San Diego (25-7) scored four runs in the fifth inning to take a 6-2 lead. The Tritons added a run in the top of the sixth to extend their lead to 7-2 before Grand Canyon (8-23) scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth on a pair of two-out RBI doubles to left by Byron Reischl and Trevor Vega and an RBI single up the middle by Cody Fortney.
The Tritons tacked on three more runs in the seventh to push their lead back to five, 10-5. Grand Canyon responded with three runs in the eighth on RBI singles by Vega and Austin Stockfisch. Vega later scored on a passed ball to cut it to 10-8. But UCSD scored twice more in the ninth, and the Antelopes went quietly in their final at-bat.
UC San Diego starter Kirby St. John (5-0) picked up the win, going 5 2/3 innings, allowing nine hits, five runs and four walks while fanning five. Keith Noe earned his sixth save of the year, working the final inning and a third without allowing a hit or a run.
GCU's Thomas Catomer (3-5) took the loss, going four innings, allowing seven hits, six runs, three earned, a walk and struck out two.
Vega went 4 for 4 with three RBI, and Stockfisch was 3 for 5 with an RBI. Reischl was 3 for 4 with an RBI, and Fortney 2 for 4 with an RBI.
UCSD's Matt Cantele was 4 for 5 with two RBI, Nick Burke was 3 for 4 with an RBI, Tim Mort 3 for 5 with two RBI and Michael Benton 4 for 4 with two RBI.
The two teams meet again for a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday.
