CHICO, Calif. ? The 11th-ranked UC San Diego baseball team dropped its first game of the NCAA West Regional, a 13-7 decision to No. 6 Chico State. The Tritons hurt themselves with a season-high four errors, leading to five unearned runs. With the loss, UCSD drops to 42-17 while the Wildcats improve to 41-15. The Tritons will now face Nebraska-Kearney in an elimination game on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. Nick Burke led the UCSD offense with four hits, while James Ferguson added two hits.
The Wildcats got on the board first on a two-out single by Josh Meagher for the 1-0 lead.
Albitz led off the UCSD first with a walk. With one out, Evan Kehoe hit a ball to the center field wall, but a spectacular catch by CSUC's Shane Farmer robbed Kehoe of a hit and the score remained 1-0 Wildcats after the first.
Chris Hom led off the UCSD third with the Tritons' first hit of the game. James Ferguson followed with a single through the right side to put two on with no outs. Nick Burke followed with a bunt down the third base line which stayed fair and the Tritons had the bases loaded with no outs. With one out, Matt Cantele singled to center to tie the game at 1-1 and the bases remained full of Tritons. Kehoe followed with a sac fly to left, giving UCSD its first lead at 2-1.
Chico State loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth, but Knudson got a fielders choice ground ball to end the frame with the Tritons remaining ahead by a run.
The Wildcats loaded the bases with one out in the fifth. On a possible double play ball, a Triton error allowed the inning to continue as two Wildcats scored and Chico led 3-2. A single by Matt Bitker drove in two more runs giving Chico State a 5-2 lead. The Wildcats would open it up and end up with a six-run inning and a 7-2 lead.
Kehoe led off the UCSD sixth with a single to right. Chris Franco walked and the runners moved up to second and third with no outs on a passed ball. Garrett Imeson followed beating out a single to shortstop for an RBI and the score was 7-3 CSUC. Tim Mort would then reach on a fielders choice, driving in Franco and UCSD was within 7-4.
Shane Farmer hit a three-run homerun in the seventh and the Wildcats took a 10-4 lead.
With CSUC leading 13-4, the Tritons loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth. With one out, Tony Bonelli singled to right for two RBI to make the score 13-6. Josh Tanner followed with a two out RBI to make the score 13-7.
