LA JOLLA, Calif. - True freshman Kyle Lucke, in his college debut, and Travis Roberts combined on a seven-inning one-hitter as No. 26 UC San Diego won the nightcap 9-1 to earn the split of Saturday's non-conference baseball doubleheader with California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) rival Cal State San Bernardino at Triton Ballpark.
The Coyotes' 8-2 win in the opener snapped a six-game losing streak and meant a first loss of the season for UCSD. With the game-two result, the Tritons moved to 6-1 while CSUSB fell to 3-7.
Junior rightfielder Jack Larsen's mammoth three-run home run to right, his third on the year, punctuated a four-run fourth that broke a 1-1 deadlock, with a second successive four-run frame in the fifth putting the result out of doubt.
UCSD hosts another CCAA foe in non-conference action on Sunday, Feb. 14, concluding an incredible six-games-in-four-days weekend at Triton Ballpark. First pitch is listed as 2 p.m. but is expected to be delayed, as Cal State San Bernardino and UT-Permian Basin will play a neutral-site contest beginning at 11 a.m. The latter showdown is rematch of the 2015 NCAA Division II West Region final, which CPP won 7-4 at Mt. SAC in Walnut. Both the Tritons and Broncos enter the matchup with identical 6-1 records.
Game One
UCSD trudged through a lackluster effort in all aspects in Saturday's first game, allowing the Coyotes to score a single run in each of the third through seventh frames, before a three-run eighth ended all the suspense and the Tritons' hopes of extending their Division II-era-record win streak to begin a season.
UCSD had taken a brief 2-1 lead in the third on sophomore Tyler Plantier's (Poway/Del Norte HS) RBI single to left with two away to score Brandon Shirley.
Freshman Tim Nelson (0-1) took the loss in relief of starter Jack Rupe, Jr. (San Marcos/Mission Hills HS). Senior left-hander Eric Moersen was the last of four Triton pitchers to see the mound, notching the final five outs with one on strikes.
Plantier wound up 3-for-4 with both runs batted in. He poked a single up the middle to score Larsen with the game's first run in the opening frame, after David Roman had dropped Larsen's fly ball in left and put the Triton on second with two away.
Game Two
Lucke wriggled out of a trouble in the first and ultimately threw four no-hit frames from there. The Coyotes got their lone run in that first, as Lucke hit his first batter with a 3-2 offering, and after a steal and groundout, gave up an infield RBI single that just narrowly eluded senior first baseman Zach Friedman, who got his glove on the ball through a diving effort. Second baseman Tim White got to it without a play.
Roberts, a redshirt sophomore left-hander, retired all six batters he faced in relief, striking out the side in the seventh, the first two looking. The Coyotes could only muster a groundout, infield lineout and comebacker in the sixth.
Lucke fanned back-to-back batters to begin the fourth, but walked Ryan Rich on four pitches. Redshirt sophomore catcher Steven Coe picked his pitcher up, however, by firing to second to catch Rich stealing, as White reached up to gather the throw and made the difficult tag. Coe helped Lucke out again in the fifth by picking Dylan Lohman off first following a leadoff walk.
Lucke had two perfect frames in the second and third and faced the minimum in the fourth and fifth thanks in large part to his catcher. He struck out five in all.
White later authored arguably the biggest sequence in the game. With the game tied 1-1 in the fourth, he fouled off four straight 0-2 offerings from starter Austin Casillas (0-2) before dropping a two-out RBI double into the gap in right center. Shirley, who had singled up the middle to lead things off, scored easily from second. Not only did White thus drive in what proved to be the winning run, he also brought up Larsen, who promptly went deep to right for his third home run already, and a 5-1 lead.
UCSD put up another four-spot in the fifth, getting two on an awry throw to the plate with the bases loaded. Tyler Howsley's groundout and White's two-out single to right accounted for the final two runs.
Triton Notes: Tyler Howsley has started 64 straight games, all at shortstop, dating back to the 2015 opener ... Tyler Plantier made his first start at first base for the Tritons in game one, and later stole his first collegiate bag in the first inning of the nightcap ... The mound start by Jack Rupe, Jr., in the first game was the second of his career ... Freshman Andres Kim made his college debut in game one as a defensive replacement at shortstop in the ninth.
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