LA JOLLA, Calif. - UC San Diego pounded out a season-high 16 hits en route to a 12-4 victory over San Francisco State University in the first game of Saturday's California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) baseball doubleheader at Triton Ballpark. The Tritons then held off the Gators, 2-1, in the seven-inning nightcap to sweep the twin bill and clinch the win in the first CCAA set of the year for both sides.
The 12 runs in game one matched the Tritons' season high. They improved to 7-2 overall and 3-0 in the CCAA. SF State fell to 1-5 overall and 0-3 in league play. UCSD had won Friday night's opener in shutout fashion, 8-0. Sunday's series finale is scheduled for an 11 a.m. start at Triton Ballpark.
Game One
A five-run Triton seventh broke open a relatively close first game that was 6-3 at the time. SF State had rallied from a 3-0 deficit to tie the score with a three-run fourth, only to see UCSD regain a 5-3 advantage in the home half and add a single run in the sixth before the big seventh. Both teams pushed across single tallies in the eighth to round out the scoring.
Erik Lewis went 4-for-5 with a double, two runs scored and an RBI. Zach Friedman was 2-for-4 with a second double in as many games, and his first triple as a Triton, driving in three from his designated hitter spot. Justin Flatt finished 3-for-4 with his first collegiate double, two runs and two RBI. Jack Larsen was 2-for-4 with a double, walk, and two RBI. UCSD had a season-high six extra-base hits in all.
Alon Leichman started and went the first four innings, tossing three scoreless frames before the trouble in the fourth. He struck out a season-best five, all among the first seven outs he registered, and did not issue a walk. Dan Kolodin (2-0) took over for the remainder, allowing a single unearned run on one hit and a pair of walks. The senior right-hander fanned four and picked up the winning decision. Kolodin has given up just one hit over his past 10.0 innings pitched in two outings.
Flatt's two-out, two-strike chopped single through the right side brought home Troy Cruz (Chula Vista/Bonita Vista HS) with the day's first run in the first. With the Gators threatening to answer with runners at the corners in the second, Leichman struck out Nick Jackson to leave them stranded.
In the third, Friedman's first-pitch frozen rope of a two-run double to right center made it 3-0, as the junior transfer from Pierce College made SF State starter Nolan Sheridan (0-2) pay just one pitch later for his two-out fielding error.
Lewis scored a well-deserved run for the Tritons' sixth, in the sixth. His aggressive base-running on slow outfield play in left center by the Gators netted him a one-out double. The senior second baseman moved to third on a groundout, and trotted home on another double that Larsen barely snuck inside the left field line. Larsen and Lewis now lead the team with four doubles apiece.
Friedman was back at it in the seventh, drilling an RBI triple into the right field corner to cap a nine-pitch at-bat that saw him foul off three full-count offerings. Brandon Shirley, Lewis and Cruz each also had a run batted in during the frame.
Defensively, shortstop Tyler Howsley made a nice short-hop scoop to start a 6-4-3 double play in the fifth. In the seventh, Kolodin initiated a third 1-6-3 double play of the series for the Tritons, to wipe away a leadoff four-pitch walk. A third twin killing ended the game, that one going 4-6-3 beginning with new second baseman Andrew Hobson, as the junior quickly made up for an error on the previous batter.
Game Two
SF State put two runners on base in the seventh, chasing a run down 2-1, but Chad Rieser managed to get out of it for his first career save. He has gone 6.2 innings over four appearances in 2015 without allowing a run. Fellow senior left-hander Trevor Scott (2-1) went the first six frames to earn the win, giving up the one run on five hits, all singles, and his first two walks of the year in 18.1 innings. He struck out four, retiring the side in order in the second, and again in an eight-pitch fifth.
SF State took its first lead of the series with a run in the fourth on a two-out infield single by Matt Vera to plate Mark Lindsay from third. Just like the Gator rally in the first contest, however, UCSD prevented the shutdown inning, scoring both of its runs in the home half. Sophomore Christian Leung, in his first start of 2015 as the designated hitter, singled sharply to center to lead things off. After Howsley put down a successful sacrifice, Shirley belted a high triple toward the gap in left center to pull the Tritons even. The next batter, Lewis, followed with the looping go-ahead single over a drawn-in infield to right center. All three UCSD hits in the fourth came on 0-1 pitches from SFSU starter Ryan Bohnet (0-1).
In the seventh, Vera singled again to shortstop, but was wiped out on a fielder's choice. A defensive miscue then allowed two Gators to remain safely on the bases, still with just one away. Rieser got Danny Souza and Nazareth Thibodeaux to both fly out to Shirley in center, however, with the redshirt sophomore having to glide toward the gap in left center on the latter, to shut the door.
The Tritons loaded the bases against Bohnet in the first and third, but couldn't score.
Triton Notes: The Tritons' five-run seventh in the first game marked their fourth five-run frame of 2015 ... UCSD has turned eight double plays over the first three games of this series, having completed just three over the first six contests this year ... Justin Flatt's team-best eight-game hit streak was snapped in the nightcap, when he finished 0-for-1 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch ... With two more walks on the day, both in game two, Troy Cruz increased his league-leading total to 13 ... Redshirt freshman Steven Coe (Valley Center/Valley Center HS) drew his first college start at catcher in the second game, having been in the lineup three times previously as the designated hitter ... Coe twice threw out Gator shortstop Andrew Breen attempting to steal second, the first time to complete an inning-ending double play in the first after a called third strike, and the second to negate a leadoff walk in the sixth ... They were the first two caught stealings by the Tritons ... Zach Friedman made his first start at first base for UCSD in the nightcap, also having begun three prior games at DH ... The RBI double by Gradeigh Sanchez in the eighth inning of game one was the junior's first hit of 2015.
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