LA JOLLA, Calif. - The 11th-ranked UC San Diego baseball team overturned a 4-1 deficit with eight runs over its final two at-bats to earn a 9-4 victory against Cal State San Bernardino in its 2016 California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) opener Friday night at Triton Ballpark.
With a fourth straight win, UCSD improved to 11-2 overall and 1-0 in the CCAA. CSUSB, one of just two teams to have begun the league slate before Friday, fell to 7-9 overall and an even 2-2 in CCAA play. The South division rivals split a non-conference doubleheader in La Jolla on Saturday, Feb. 13.
Friday's result meant CCAA win No. 100 for fifth-year Triton head coach Eric Newman, who moved to 100-57 in arguably the nation's toughest Division II league.
Having knotted the game at 4-4, the Tritons sent 10 men to the plate in the eighth and came up with five more runs on five hits, one walk and a hit-by-pitch.
Starter Alon Leichman allowed all four Coyote runs, three of them earned, on six hits and no walks over 7.0 innings, striking out four. It was a third start in a row of exactly seven frames for the senior right-hander, the long for his Triton career.
Redshirt sophomore left-hander Travis Roberts needed three tosses to register the first two outs in the eighth on a groundout and flyout, with true freshman right-hander Kyle Mora (1-0) coming on to get Brian Lockey swinging and send the Triton bats right back to work after a three-run seventh. Mora fired a perfect ninth, handling first baseman Justin Flatt's flip on a grounder before another groundout and a second swinging strikeout, to notch his first collegiate winning decision. Flatt had a stellar scoop on that second out from second baseman Tim White's low throw.
CSUSB ace Tyler Wells went five effective frames but was forced to exit with 104 pitches to the patient Tritons during that time. The junior right-hander gave up one run on three hits and three walks. He fanned eight to lift his league-best total to 42. UCSD has won the conference series 3-1 in each of the past two seasons, with Wells the starter in both the Coyotes' victories, though he had yet to earn a decision. He did not figure on Friday, either, with Cory Peterson (0-1) taking the loss in relief.
Redshirt sophomore catcher Steven Coe (Valley Center/Valley Center HS) and White drew walks around a strikeout to begin the seventh. Following a pitching change, senior leftfielder Gradeigh Sanchez laced an opposite-field, two-run double to left to make it a 4-3 game. A wild pitch moved Sanchez to third, but a groundout with the infield in kept him there. That is, until junior centerfielder Jack Larsen, a teammate of Sanchez going back to their days together at Mission Viejo's Capistrano Valley High School, followed his fellow Triton's lead and roped an opposite-field extra-base hit, this one going down as a triple, that eluded Coyote leftfielder Ryan Rich's reach. It came on a 1-2 count and tied the score. A popout left him stranded at third.
The home eighth again started with a walk, this time to junior third baseman Vince Mori (Oceanside/Palomar College/Westview HS). Pinch-runner Brandon Shirley scooted to second on a failed pickoff attempt and scored on Christian Leung's single up the middle. With Leung on the move, Tyler Howsley poked a single through the right side for Tritons on the corners. White singled to center to bring Leung in, and Sanchez was plunked to load the bases. Flatt and Larsen followed with sharp RBI singles on back-to-back pitches around a third pitching change for the frame, that dropped just in front of Coyote outfielders in left and center, respectively. Tyler Plantier's (Poway/Del Norte HS) sacrifice fly capped the scoring.
CSUSB struck for three runs in the first two innings, with back-to-back singles leading into a sacrifice and two-run Lockey single to get the visitors going. Larsen threw to White to get Lockey trying to stretch it into a double.
UCSD pulled one back in the third when Plantier snuck a single through the left side on a 1-2 offering from Wells. Sanchez was at third after drawing a five-pitch, one-out walk and advancing two bases on another walk and right-sided groundout.
The Tritons gave the run back in the sixth via infield error, but struck in the seventh. They would retire the last 11 Coyote batters in order to help set up the rally.
Larsen finished 3-for-5 with a double, triple and two RBI. Sanchez was 1-for-3 with a walk, hit-by-pitch, three runs scored, and two RBI. Plantier drove in a pair and stole his second collegiate base, while White scored twice.
The series between UCSD and CSUSB now shifts north to San Bernardino and Fiscalini Field on Saturday, Feb. 27, for a doubleheader beginning at 11 a.m. The teams will return to La Jolla for a Sunday finale at 1 p.m. at Triton Ballpark.
Triton Notes: UCSD is 4-1 in CCAA openers under Eric Newman, with four straight wins since a 4-1 home loss to Chico State in 2012 ... The Tritons are 9-7 in CCAA openers all-time (since 2001) ... Tyler Howsley started his 70th straight game, all at shortstop, dating back to the 2015 opener ... Alon Leichman made his 16th start for UCSD ... UCSD allowed a first-inning run for a third successive contest, winning them all, and is 5-0 in 2016 when surrendering a score in the opening frame ... The Tritons are 11-0 when scoring at least three runs in a game ... At 11-2, UCSD is off to its best 13-game start since beginning the 2011 campaign 11-2 ... Friday's five-run eighth marked the Tritons' most potent frame of 2016, with the nine runs matching their season high, from the 9-1 seven-inning home triumph over CSUSB on Feb. 13 ... Jack Larsen's seventh-inning triple was his CCAA-best third, with UCSD also leading the league with its eight three-baggers after producing 10 all of last year.
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