HAYWARD, Calif. - Behind an absolute stroke of master class by Justin Donatella, the 17th-ranked UC San Diego baseball team made quick work of Cal State East Bay, 5-0, in the opener of a four-game California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) series Friday afternoon at Pioneer Field.
With the victory, UCSD improved to 11-6 overall and 7-2 in the CCAA. Cal State East Bay dropped to 3-6 overall and 0-5 in league play.
Donatella (3-1), a junior right-hander out of Saugus, twirled his first career complete game, a one-hit shutout, and finished with a season-high 11 strikeouts. He allowed only two base-runners, facing just two over the minimum, as the host Pioneers managed a fifth-inning single and a seventh-inning hit-by-pitch. The final pitch count was 98, with eight groundouts and eight flyouts.
Donatella thereby stretched his shutout streak in CCAA play now to 21 complete innings over his first three league starts of 2015, all winning decisions. He lowered his season ERA to 0.36, having given up a single earned run in 25 frames.
“I was just executing my pitches, and they were hitting (the ball) at our guys,” said a modest Donatella. “I had better focus today, pitch to pitch. I had good command of my fastball and was able to throw it to both sides of the plate for the most part. If I can do that, that gives (pitching) Coach (Rob) Avila an easy job of calling pitches.”
“Donny just put us on his back and competed his tail off out there for us,” remarked fourth-year UCSD head coach Eric Newman. “His stuff was just OK early on, but as the game went on, he really settled in and started to pitch. He was commanding his fastball. He really just did it with his fastball command, and threw the breaking ball when he needed to. It was about his fastball today. He was really good.”
“Justin was in complete control of himself and what he was doing on the mound all day today,” added pitching coach Rob Avila. “It was the embodiment of what we try to get each guy to do every time they take the mound, which is focus on executing pitches one pitch at a time.”
To say the game began as a pitcher's duel would be an understatement, as the two teams' respective Friday aces combined for five scoreless innings in about 65 minutes. Donatella retired the first 14 batters in succession for the Tritons, with five on strikes, before a two-out, first-pitch single through the left side in the fifth by Daniel Carney. He promptly struck out the next batter. Meanwhile, counterpart Michael Pope put up five zeroes of his own.
The Tritons finally broke through in the sixth. Senior second baseman Erik Lewis worked a five-pitch walk from Pope and moved to second on a first-pitch infield single by Troy Cruz (Chula Vista/Bonita Vista HS). After Jack Larsen bunted both of his teammates into scoring position, senior first baseman Michael Mann's single to right upset the scoreless deadlock. A fielder's choice ground ball by Justin Flatt then plated Cruz for a 2-0 lead.
“We were competing with the guy,” added Newman about his club's effort against an effective Pope early on. “Some things didn't go our way. We hit into a double play (in the first), and hit balls right at people. We couldn't capitalize on Christian's (Leung) leadoff double in the third, but we kept battling. The fifth inning really swung it for us. We didn't score, but put some quality at-bats together and saw about 25 pitches, and were able to take advantage in the following inning. It was our third time through (the order), and we had built (Pope's) pitch count up a little bit.”
Donatella came right back out and blew through the next three Pioneer hitters on 11 pitches via swinging strikeout, flyout and bunted comebacker.
The Tritons doubled their advantage in the seventh off of reliever Cole Compton. With two gone, Brandon Shirley, who had worked the count full and walked with one away, stole his fourth base of the year and wound up standing on third after a throwing error by East Bay catcher Chris Porter. Cruz then also drew a base on balls, and Larsen and Mann followed with back-to-back RBI singles, the second in as many innings for the latter player.
UCSD added a final run in the ninth as Mann drew a four-pitch walk with one out, Flatt singled, and both runners advanced on a balk. Christian Leung lifted a sacrifice fly to bring Mann home.
Donatella cruised through a 12-pitch first with a pair of strikeouts, the latter one called, around a groundout. He needed just 11 tosses in the second, getting a third punchout, comebacker and infield lineout. Another 10 pitches put him through the third with a pair of flyouts ahead of a ground ball, with 10 more necessary in the fourth, as he got leadoff man Marcus Wise swinging for the second time, threw three straight called strikes past Dakota Conners, and got Rudy Navarro to ground out.
Donatella faced some slight adversity in the seventh, hitting Conners with a 1-2 pitch to start things off, with the Pioneer shortstop swiping second with one out. Donatella induced a flyout from pinch-hitter Rob Link, however, and fanned Jason Fletcher to keep his shutout streak in league action intact.
Donatella breezed through the eighth, when nine pitches netted him a swinging strikeout, third comebacker on the afternoon, and a called third strike. The ninth saw him make nine final throws, with a fourth strikeout looking, and two flyouts.
Pope (0-2) went six complete and gave up two runs on five hits and three walks. He struck out three. Pope cleaned up a six-pitch walk to Shirley to begin the game, by inducing a 6-4-3 double play, before a perfect second. The senior right-hander had to make just 12 pitches for three successive groundouts in the fourth.
UCSD was first to produce a scoring opportunity when Leung led off the third with a double into the gap in left center, and was sacrificed to third by Brett Levy. The sophomore was then cut down at the plate on a fielder's choice. After a hit-by-pitch put two Tritons on base, a groundout ended that threat.
In the fifth, it was Leung again with the one-out single, with a pair of Tritons once again on base following a two-out fielding error to bring up Shirley at the top of the order, but the redshirt sophomore centerfielder popped up.
Mann was 2-for-4 with a walk, run and two RBI. Leung finished 2-for-3 with a walk, double and RBI. Shirley was 0-for-2, but managed to reach three times from the leadoff spot with two walks and a hit-by-pitch. Tyler Howsley went 2-for-4, with Flatt 2-for-5 with an RBI. Cruz scored twice.
UCSD and Cal State East Bay continue their series in Hayward with a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 11 a.m.
Triton Notes: Justin Donatella reached double figures in strikeouts for the second time as a collegian, his career high coming in his Division II-era school-record 13-strikeout performance at home against Cal State Dominguez Hills on March 6, 2014 ... Donatella's effort was the first individual nine-inning, one-hit shutout in UCSD's Division II history, with Tim Shibuya (7.0 IP, H) and Elias Tuma (2.0) combining on a nine-inning, one-hit shutout, also against Cal State East Bay (1-0), at home on Feb. 19, 2011 ... With his leadoff walk in the sixth, Erik Lewis extended his reached-base streaks to 17 games this season and 40 going back to the end of 2014 ... Lewis is the lone Triton to reach safely in all 17 contests, and now is second on both the team and in the CCAA with his 15 walks ... The walk by Troy Cruz in the seventh was his league-leading 21st ... Brandon Shirley's hit-by-pitch was his team-best sixth ... UCSD has posted five shutout victories already in 2015, having finished the 2014 campaign with seven, the program's most in a single season in the Division II era.
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