LA JOLLA, Calif. - After surrendering the entirety of an early 5-0 lead, the 26th-ranked UC San Diego baseball team struck for three runs in the sixth and made them stand up for an 8-6 victory over visiting crosstown foe San Diego Christian College in an exhibition contest Saturday afternoon at Triton Ballpark.
The home sixth started with a first-pitch single through the left side by redshirt sophomore catcher Steven Coe (Valley Center/Valley Center HS), and a sacrifice bunt by junior shortstop Tyler Howsley. After a flyout, redshirt junior centerfielder Brandon Shirley produced an infield single to put Tritons on the corners, and junior rightfielder Jack Larsen came through with the RBI single up the middle. With both runners in scoring position, sophomore Tyler Plantier (Poway/Del Norte HS), who had entered the game at third base to begin the top half, singled through the right side to make it an 8-5 game.
SDC still threatened once more in the eighth, getting back-to-back one-out doubles to left from Patrick Vizcaino and Caeden Barnes to close back to within two and bring the tying run to the plate, but senior left-hander Eric Moersen induced a groundout and Larsen made a running grab toward the line in right to keep it 8-6.
"Honestly, I thought it was all good," said UCSD head coach Eric Newman. "Was there some adversity? Yeah, and I actually think we need that. We need to experience some of that. We need to have these young guys who don't have a lot of experience, go through these situations early on so that once we get into the first part of conference and as the season goes along, that we are a little more battle-tested. So I was actually really pleased with the way the plan unfolded, getting those guys in, even giving up the five-run lead. We had to respond. We had to figure out if we were going to be able to respond to that, and we did. I was really pleased with a lot of the things that we did today."
Triton starter Alon Leichman tossed three shutout innings with three strikeouts and two hits against. Those were both singles to open the game, with the senior right-hander wriggling out of that jam through a flyout, lineout and strikeout. Leichman got out of the second after a one-out throwing error courtesy of a 5-4-3 double play, UCSD's lone twin killing of the afternoon, as junior newcomer Vince Mori (Oceanside/Palomar College) and senior Zach Friedman had nice picks of low throws at second and first base, respectively. He would not figure in the decision.
That went to redshirt freshman Zach Wallace, who went 1.1 frames. Freshman left-hander Brent Bell threw a scoreless seventh with just a leadoff single, and redshirt freshman Cameron Kurz (Encinitas/La Costa Canyon HS) the ninth to earn the save.
"Alon was a little up and down, but he came out with three zeroes," added Newman. "I don't think he was commanding as well as he has in the past, but he was making pitches when he needed to, which you would expect from a senior. He's going to know how to grind it out and get some outs when he needs to.
"I was excited with what I saw from Alon. I was really excited with what I saw from Zach Wallace, Brent Bell and Cameron Kurz. That was really, really big to see those guys get a chance to get out there. Both Cam and Zach haven't pitched in two years because of injury. It was just good to see them get out there and have an opportunity to perform and handle the pressure. It wasn't a blowout game. It was a game they had to make pitches in, and it was good to see."
UCSD trotted out to a 5-0 advantage through a two-run second and three-run third. In the second, junior third baseman JD Hearn singled to lead off and scored on a wild pitch, and redshirt sophomore designated hitter Justin Flatt then rolled an RBI base hit through the right side to plate Friedman, who had singled on an 0-2 count.
The third started with back-to-back walks. Another four-pitch pass issued moments later to Larsen, loaded the bases with one out. Hearn slapped an RBI fielder's choice to third and stole second ahead of Mori's two-out, two-run single to left center.
Mori and Plantier each wound up with one hit and two RBI. Flatt was 2-for-4 with an RBI out of UCSD's 12 hits on the day, all singles. SDC matched that total. Ryan Alvarez was 3-for-5 with an RBI for the Hawks. Matt Meggers was the losing pitcher.
"For me, it's always good to win, whether it counts or not," concluded Newman. "But what I saw today was probably even more important than just winning the game. I saw us have to go through a lot of different things, so it was good."
UCSD and SDC will square off once more in exhibition action this Tuesday night, Jan. 26. First pitch at Triton Ballpark is set for 6 p.m. Admission is free.
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