WALNUT, Calif. - Survive and advance. It's that time of year, and that's what the 30th-ranked UC San Diego baseball team did Friday afternoon at Mazmanian Field in an elimination game of the 2015 NCAA Division II Championship West Regional. The Tritons relinquished a 5-0 lead, but managed to outlast city rival Point Loma Nazarene University, 7-5. The six-team, double-elimination tournament is being hosted by top-seeded Cal Poly Pomona on the Mt. San Antonio College campus.
Fifth-seeded UCSD, the designated home side following a pregame coin flip, improved to 34-20 overall. Sixth-seeded Point Loma saw its season end at 33-18. The Sea Lions lost 12-0 to CPP to begin an altered four-game second day of the tourney after only two of three scheduled contests on Thursday could take place due to severe weather. Point Loma had won the only regular-season meeting between the crosstown foes, 9-8, in La Jolla on Feb. 17.
UCSD held a 7-2 lead that night at home before surrendering a six-run seventh. Ahead 5-0 after six on Friday with their season on the line, the Tritons bent, giving up three runs as the Sea Lions sent eight men to the plate in another big seventh, before the score was level at 5-5 an inning later. They would not, however, break, scoring twice in the home eighth and holding on to see another day.
UCSD advances to another elimination tilt on Saturday at 3 p.m. The opponent was determined to be Dixie State, as the fourth-seeded Red Storm posted the first upset of the West Regional right after the Tritons' game, 2-1, over Cal Poly Pomona. UCSD lost that particular coin flip after the Dixie State conclusion, and will serve as the visitor on Saturday. The Tritons would not have to play twice.
Having gotten the strikeout to end the visitor eighth on the mound with two Sea Lions still in scoring position, junior All-American Troy Cruz (Chula Vista/Bonita Vista HS) began the home half by drawing a five-pitch walk. That forced Point Loma to go to its closer, Coleman Huntley III, the national leader with 13 saves. Erik Lewis kept showing bunt, but never had to offer as Huntley threw four straight outside of the zone. Brett Levy then bunted foul for strike two before slapping an opposite-field single to right to load the bases, and Tyler Howsley subsequently dropped an RBI single, also with two strikes, into shallow right center to drive in Cruz with what proved to be the winning run. With one away, Justin Flatt chopped another RBI single through the right side for some insurance.
Cruz came back on for the ninth and closed it out, but not without some effort. He ultimately struck out the side, but AJ Derr doubled down the left field line with two gone, before an infield error put Sea Lions at the corners and the tying run at first. Unfazed, Cruz had Joseph Keller staring at a 1-2 pitch and it was finally over.
Cruz (6-5), who began the game at third base before taking the hill, wound up providing 2.0 shutout innings with three hits against and five strikeouts. His own run made him a winner.
The match-up featured a pair of left-handed products of Dana Hills High School at the start in fourth-year senior Trevor Scott of UCSD and sophomore Eric Pierce of Point Loma. Neither figured in the decision. Scott let the leadoff man on base in each of the first two frames via four-pitch walk and single, respectively, but induced ground-ball double plays to clean up both, with one of the 6-3 variety to Howsley to end the first, and a 4-6-3 twin killing ahead of a called third strike in the second.
UCSD grabbed a 1-0 edge in that second as that man Cruz doubled into the left field corner for openers, took third on a Lewis flyout to right, and trotted home on a sharp single to left by senior catcher Levy. Point Loma's first of two double plays on the day, 6-4-3, limited the damage against Pierce.
Scott and Cruz then helped combine on a perfect shutdown frame for the Tritons, Cruz charging and expertly handling a first-pitch bunt attempt by Taner Handa after a flyout, and Scott battling back from a 3-0 count to catch Trey Hunt looking. It was a 10-pitch frame.
UCSD failed to double its advantage in the third when Michael Mann was thrown out at the plate trying to score from first on a single to center by Jack Larsen and an outfield error. Mann had drawn a two-out walk. Scott then evaded another leadoff runner in the fourth, leaving a Sea Lion stranded at second on a swinging strikeout.
The Tritons filled the bags in their fourth on a Tyler Plantier (Poway/Del Norte HS) single, one-out, four-pitch walk to Lewis, and an infield error. Howsley then took a close ball three for a full count before accepting the free pass to force Plantier in. Brandon Shirley's first-pitch sacrifice fly brought Lewis in, and Gradeigh Sanchez laced an RBI single into left center to chase Levy across the plate for a 4-0 cushion.
Scott came right back out and got a pair of groundouts to Lewis at second base around a strikeout for his second 1-2-3 shutdown inning on 10 pitches.
Larsen sent a 2-2 offering from new pitcher Patrick McMullen opposite field into the gap in left center to open the fifth and moved to third on a flyout. After Cruz was intentionally walked, he was running on a Lewis ground ball to keep the Tritons out of the inning-ending double play and allow Larsen to come home for 5-0.
Point Loma began the seventh with three straight hits, starting with a triple pulled down the right field line by Ryan Garcia, to end Scott's afternoon. Javier Carrillo, Jr., came on to get a big strikeout after a failed pickoff moved both runners into scoring position, but a single through the left side pulled the Sea Lions another run closer. A fielder's choice groundout made it a 5-3 game. PLNU's fifth hit for the frame put the tying run on first. Chad Rieser, like Scott a fourth-year senior left-hander, entered the fray and got Tyler Baker to swing through to keep his side in front.
An infield single and groundout drove in the two runs that tied the score in the top of the eighth for Point Loma. A walk and a single had started the frame as UCSD went to Cruz. He initially went 0-2 to Keller before allowing a single down the line in right to load the bases.
Scott allowed three runs on five hits and two walks over six-plus innings pitched. He struck out four. Larsen was 3-for-4 with his team-best 12th double and a run scored. Cruz went 1-for-2 with a double, two walks and two runs. Lewis and Mann also walked twice, with Lewis scoring a pair. Levy was 2-for-4 with one run and one RBI. Howsley drove in two more to give him 20 RBI for the season and a team-best five for the tournament.
Pierce went 4.0 innings and gave up four runs, just one of them earned, on seven hits and three walks. He struck out four, including the side around back-to-back two-out singles in the first. McMullen set the Tritons down in order in the sixth.
Triton Notes: In its eighth appearance at the NCAA Division II Championship, UCSD is 19-15, including an even 5-5 under Eric Newman ... The teams were meeting in the postseason for the very first time, as PLNU was involved in its first-ever NCAA Championship in its first season of eligibility following a reclassification from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) ... Erik Lewis walked twice to give him a league-best 42 on the year ... Eleven strikeouts today by its pitching staff extended UCSD's league-best, program-record total to 449 ... With seven more walks, UCSD increased its nation-leading and program-record season total to 294.
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