LA JOLLA, Calif. ?Garrett Imeson became UC San Diego's all-time career hits leader as the No. 6 Tritons defeated San Francisco State 8-7 on Sunday afternoon at Triton Baseball Field. The win was UCSD's ninth straight victory, its longest winning streak of the season. The Tritons jumped out to a 5-1 lead and nearly let a three-run lead in the ninth get away. With the potential tying and go-ahead runs on base, Guido Knudson picked off the runner on second and struck out the Gator batter to end the game. With the win, the Tritons improve to 19-7, 16-4 California Collegiate Athletic Association, while San Francisco State drops to 7-24, 2-22 CCAA.
The Tritons had 15 more hits on Sunday, with Josh Tanner leading the way with three hits, as Imeson, Evan Kehoe, Matt Cantele and Tim Mort also had multiple hit games. Imeson's record setting hit came in the first inning, a double to the right center gap, breaking Bob Natal's mark of 257 career hits, a mark that had stood for 22 years.
Kirby St. John started for the Tritons and went 4.2 innings, allowing two runs. Sean Greer pitched 2.1 innings of relief to earn the win, improving to 5-0 on the year. Knudson picked up his sixth save of the year.
In the UCSD first, Albitz walked and Imeson doubled to right center for the career hits record and setting up runners on second and third with no outs. Kehoe singled up the middle for two RBI and UCSD quickly had a 2-0 lead. Cantele followed with a double to the left center gap for an RBI and the Tritons led 3-0.
With two outs in the UCSD second, Imeson doubled to left center for an RBI and UCSD went ahead 4-0.
In the SFSU fourth, the Gators put two on with no outs. St. John got the next Gators batter to hit into a 3-6-1 double play and the next SFSU batter flew out to end the inning without a score.
In the UCSD fourth with two outs, Kehoe singled to center for an RBI and the Tritons led 5-0.
In the SFSU fifth, Zack Anderson led off with a homerun to left, making the score 5-1 UCSD. With one out, Nick Nyman hit a home run to left center, pulling SFSU within 5-2.
In the Triton fifth with one out, Tanner hit an RBI single to center to put UCSD up 6-2.
With one out in the SFSU seventh, Bobby Carini hit a three-run homerun to left, pulling SFSU within 6-5.
In the UCSD eighth, Tanner led off with a single to right and advanced to second on an error with no outs. Albitz followed with a double to left center for an RBI and UCSD led 7-5. Albitz would steal third and score on a wild pitch and UCSD had an 8-5 advantage.
SFSU got the first two runners on base with singles in the ninth to bring the potential tying run to the plate. Knudson got the next batter on a pop out for the first out. Sean Proni singled through the right side for an RBI and runners were on first and second with still one out and the score 8-6 UCSD. Ryan Williams singled up the middle and pulled SFSU within 8-7 with two on. Knudson then picked off the runner on second for the second out of the inning and struck out the final batter to earn the save.
The Tritons are back in action next week with a big CCAA series at Chico State. First pitch on Friday is set for 6:00 p.m. at Nettleton Stadium.
