LA JOLLA, Calif. - The 26th-ranked UC San Diego baseball team remained a perfect 5-0 on the young season with a doubleheader sweep of visiting UT-Permian Basin on Friday at Triton Ballpark. Scores were 8-1 and 5-3 in the seven-inning nightcap.
The Tritons thus also swept the three-game non-conference series, having won Thursday night's opener, 7-6. UCSD is 5-0 for the first time in its NCAA Division II history, since 2001. UTPB, from Odessa, Texas, and a member of the Heartland Conference, fell to 4-3 with three games left to play in California through Sunday.
UCSD continues a 13-game season-opening homestand and an unprecedented six-games-in-72-hours stretch with a non-conference doubleheader against California Collegiate Athletic Association foe Cal State San Bernardino (2-6, 2-1 CCAA) on Saturday afternoon, Feb. 13. First pitch at Triton Ballpark is set for 2 p.m.
Game One
Left-hander Brent Bell (2-0) went five shutout innings with five strikeouts in his first college start before fellow true freshman Jonah Dipoto took over for three frames and fanned two while retiring all nine batters he faced in his debut.
Vince Mori (Oceanside/Palomar College/Westview HS) went 3-for-4 with three RBI, including a two-run triple in the seventh that made it 5-0 before the Tritons further broke it open with a three-run eight. That rally featured a first-pitch, two-run triple to left center by Brandon Shirley, after Steven Coe had lead off by lacing an opposite-field double into the right field corner on an 0-2 pitch, and Tyler Howsley worked a five-pitch walk. Shirley then scored on an RBI fielder's choice by Jack Larsen.
Bell set down nine of his first 10 batters, with all five strikeouts coming during that stretch, two of them called, alongside a pair of groundouts. He was perfect in the first and third, all on the infield. In the fifth, an infield error and double put Falcons at second and third with one away and UCSD up by just a single run. A groundout brought up speedy UTPB leadoff man Latrell Harris, but shortstop Tyler Howsley swooped in behind the second-base bag to glove his grounder and end the inning.
UCSD came right back out and tacked on a pair on a bases-loaded walk and sacrifice fly by Tyler Plantier (Poway/Del Norte HS). UTPB issued four walks in the frame.
The Tritons had opened the scoring in the fourth as Mori jumped all over the first pitch to him to send Gradeigh Sanchez home from third with a single.
Bell, Dipoto and Zach Wallace combined to retire 13 straight Falcons between the fifth and the ninth when Jordan Zazulak belted a two-out home run.
Game Two
Senior right-hander Alon Leichman (1-0) tossed his first complete game as a Triton, allowing three runs, two earned, six hits and one walk while striking out five over his seven innings.
Sanchez whipped an RBI double into the left field corner just ahead of a two-run triple into the opposite corner by Larsen to begin a four-run second in the nightcap. Plantier's first-pitch single to left then enabled Larsen to trot home for the early 5-0 lead. The Tritons held on despite three runs in the final two frames by the Falcons.
Sanchez had also tallied the game's initial run, leading off the home first with an opposite-field single through the left side and moving to second on a wild pitch before junior Christian Leung took his first pitch of the season to center for an RBI single. Leung had only just made his 2016 debut as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning of game one.
Leichman put runners at the corners in the first through a pair of singles and a wild pitch, but caught Bryan Van Vranken staring at one to end the threat. He also punctuated a 1-2-3 second with a called third strike, igniting a string of three successive perfect frames. He set down 10 straight during the stretch.
After an infield single to lead off the fifth, Leichman benefitted from a sparkling play by Tim White, as the redshirt sophomore Tim White made a bare-handed stab at a sharp grounder that took an odd hop, and flipped fluidly to Howsley to start the 4-6-3 twin killing. In the fourth, third baseman JD Hearn's long throw across the diamond was a touch wide, but true freshman first baseman Tyler Durna showed some nifty footwork to corral the toss while still maintaining contact with the base.
Leichman might have found some further trouble in a one-run UTPB sixth, but a leadoff walk and infield error, he fielded a sacrifice bunt, spun nicely and got the lead runner at third.
Triton Notes: Tyler Howsley has started 62 straight games, all at shortstop, dating back to the 2015 opener ... Redshirt freshman Zach Wallace made his college debut in pitching the ninth inning of game one ... Jack Larsen successfully stole second base in the fifth inning of the first game, making him a perfect 15-for-15 in steal attempts in college ... Vince Mori's game-one triple was his first as a Triton, UCSD's first of the season, and the first of three by the Tritons on the day ... Subsequent triples by Brandon Shirley and Jack Larsen were the fourth and second of their respective careers ... Alon Leichman's five strikeouts in the nightcap matched his high as a Triton ... The start was Leichman's 14th for UCSD ... Freshman Tyler Durna's fifth-inning single in game two was the first hit of his college career.
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