LA JOLLA, Calif. - The 16th-ranked UC San Diego baseball team was not at its best on Sunday, committing four errors over the first four frames to twice fall behind by a run, but was good enough to get past visiting Concordia Irvine, 6-2, and complete the come-from-behind series victory Sunday afternoon at Triton Ballpark.
UCSD thus improved to 10-2 overall on the year, with CUI dropping to 4-8. The Tritons rallied from having dropped Friday night's opener of the four-game set, 5-0. They swept Saturday's doubleheader, 7-2 and 3-2 in seven innings.
On Sunday, sophomore right-hander Jack Rupe, Jr. (San Marcos/Mission Hills HS) entered in relief in the third inning and earned the win (1-0), tossing a career-long 5.2 shutout innings with just two singles and a walk against him, while striking out three to match his collegiate best. Redshirt junior centerfielder Brandon Shirley's three-run, bases-clearing double with one gone in a four-run seventh broke a 2-2 deadlock. Redshirt sophomore Justin Flatt added a solid pinch-hit single up the middle to bring Shirley home from third moments later for the 6-2 final.
Concordia put up single unearned runs in the first and third off of true freshman right-handed starter Preston Mott, capitalizing on three of the Tritons' four early defensive miscues. With Eagles at the corners, Chad Whiteaker's opposite-field single to right brought in the afternoon's first run. Mott came back to get a three-pitch swinging strikeout and a flyout to curb the damage.
The third began with a single, walk and strikeout before Mott (2.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 2 SO, HBP) was replaced. Rupe, Jr., did exactly what he needed to, getting a ground ball to shortstop off the bat of Michael Nava. Second baseman Vince Mori's relay, however, skipped and got past Tyler Durna at first base, to allow the run to score.
In between, Mori (Palomar College/Oceanside/Westview HS) doubled to left center with one away in the home second, and sprinted home on fellow junior transfer JD Hearn's (UC Santa Barbara) sharp two-out single, also to left center.
The Tritons tied it up a second time in their fourth, getting back-to-back doubles from Jack Larsen to the wall in right, and Tyler Plantier (Poway/Del Norte HS) into the left field corner.
The score remained knotted at 2-2 until the seventh, even through a base-running blunder for UCSD in a sixth inning that began with a leadoff walk and ended with a double play.
In that seventh, Hearn was hit by a pitch to start things off, by junior utility Brett Barker (0-2) in his second mound start of the year. He and redshirt sophomore catcher Steven Coe (Valley Center/Valley Center HS) were both safe on the latter's bunt, as Barker threw wide of the second-base target. Initially trying to sacrifice, Tyler Howsley gladly accepted the five-pitch free pass, to fill the bags. After a flyout to shallow right center, Shirley came through in the clutch by roping an 0-1 offering into the left field corner. Luke Hussung had difficulty getting the ball back in, with the play being credited as a three-run double with Shirley winding up at third. Flatt took the stage after another flyout.
Rupe, Jr., faced a base-runner in both the fourth and the fifth, on an error and single, respectively, and managed to get out of both frames. He benefitted from his catcher, Coe, gunning down Whiteaker trying to steal second right after a one-out single, in the fifth. The big right-hander than worked a perfect sixth and eighth, with two strikeouts following a groundout in the latter, around dodging a leadoff single in the seventh. Redshirt freshman Erik Amundson took over for the ninth and after another leadoff hit, got a called third strike, flyout and groundout to end the game.
Shirley finished 2-for-4 with his double, run scored and three RBI. Whiteaker was 2-for-3 with a walk and Concordia's lone RBI.
UCSD will now head into the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) portion of its 2016 schedule with that 10-2 mark, hosting Cal State San Bernardino in the opener of a four-game, split-venue series this Friday night, Feb. 26. First pitch at Triton Ballpark is set for 6 p.m., with an 11 a.m. doubleheader to follow Saturday at Fiscalini Field in San Bernardino, and a Sunday finale back in La Jolla on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Tritons and Coyotes already split a non-conference doubleheader at Triton Ballpark on Feb. 13. CSUSB has played three CCAA tilts and is 2-1.
Triton Notes: Tyler Howsley has started 69 straight games, all at shortstop, dating back to the 2015 opener ... Preston Mott drew his second mound start, both coming in Sunday afternoon home affairs and both resulting in Triton wins, though Mott has not figured in either decision ... Mott has yet to give up an earned run through his first 7.1 innings of collegiate work, though he allowed his first two walks against CUI ... The Tritons equaled their season high with their four errors, from the Feb. 13 loss to CSUSB ... UCSD is 7-0 so far in 2016 when a true freshman starts on the mound, and 10-0 when it scores at least three runs ... At 10-2, the Tritons are off to their best 12-game start since beginning the 2011 campaign 10-2 ... UCSD totaled nine extra-base hits over the final three games of the Concordia series, including a season-high four doubles on Sunday, after coming up with none in Friday's opener.
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