LA JOLLA, Calif. - The 11th-ranked UC San Diego baseball team took a 2-0 lead after two batters and put matters out of doubt late in posting a 16-5 victory over Cal State San Bernardino to complete the four-game sweep of its first California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) series of the year Sunday at Triton Ballpark.
In winning its seventh straight while extending its best start in its NCAA Division II history (since 2001), UCSD moved to 14-2 overall and a perfect 4-0 in the CCAA. The Tritons are the only team left with an unblemished league mark. CSUSB dropped to 7-12 overall and 2-5 in CCAA play. The Tritons had taken the opener of the four-game series Friday night in La Jolla, 9-4. They then took both ends of Saturday's twin bill in San Bernardino, 20-4 and 5-3 in seven innings. UCSD has won the CCAA set with the Coyotes four years in a row. The Tritons actually took the season series, 5-1, as the teams split a non-conference doubleheader in La Jolla on Feb. 13.
On Sunday, junior outfielder Jack Larsen once again took a starring role for the Tritons, driving in four runs over the first two frames to move him into the CCAA lead in RBI, and also making two great catches in the field, one in center where he started, and the other in right after moving over late in the contest. He finished 2-for-4 at the plate with two walks, a home run, three runs and the four RBI. Redshirt junior outfielder Brandon Shirley only entered the fray as a pinch-runner in the sixth, but still managed to squeeze in a 2-for-2 afternoon with a triple, run scored and four RBI. He had a two-run single in the seventh and a two-run triple in the eighth, the latter deep into the gap in left center that clicked off the sprinting centerfielder's glove.
Only nine pitches in, UCSD led 2-0 after senior leftfielder Gradeigh Sanchez had poked a single through the left side with the count full, and Larsen launched his team-best fourth home run over the wall in right center. The Tritons added three to that tally in the following frame when the Coyotes suffered the misfortune of seeing Larsen come to bat with the bases loaded. He promptly dropped a two-run single into right field, with Tyler Plantier (Poway/Del Norte HS) singled sharply to center on the very next offering by CSUSB starter Austin Casillas (0-4). The entire rally came with two outs, ignited by Tyler Howsley's two-strike single to center.
After three, it was 7-0, as UCSD loaded the bases on singles by Tyler Durna and Steven Coe (Valley Center/Valley Center HS) around a walk to JD Hearn. Howsley took another two-strike offering and drove it through the left side, and Tim White lifted a sacrifice fly.
Things looked comfortable, but not so much anymore after a five-run Coyote fifth in which they sent 11 to the plate and registered six singles, including four straight.
Freshman left-hander Preston Mott was cruising to that point, facing the minimum through three with 1-2-3 frames in the second and third. He fanned a season-high five, but allowed his first five earned runs of the year, on seven hits and a walk.
Another true freshman, right-hander Kyle Mora (2-0), settled things down on the mound and earned his second winning decision of the season, both coming in relief in this series. Mora tossed 2.2 shutout innings with a single and two walks against him. He struck out two, and was perfect in the sixth.
The Triton bats got back to work to shut down any comeback hopes, putting up two on the sixth, three in the seventh and four in the eighth. In the sixth, Howsley worked a bases-loaded walk and Hearn scored on a wild pitch, as the six CSUSB pitchers to see action in the game had consistent trouble finding the strike zone. They wound up with 12 walks, four wild pitches and a hit-by-pitch.
The seventh saw the two-run Shirley single up the middle after the visitors walked the bases full on 14 tosses. Hearn's sacrifice fly made it a 12-5 game.
A one-out infield error, the only one on the day by either side, ignited the four-run eighth. A wild pitch and two four-pitch walks later, there were Tritons on every base yet again. Justin Flatt flied out deep to center for a third UCSD sacrifice fly, Shirley roped his triple, and senior first baseman Zach Friedman dropped an opposite-field single down the line in left field for his first RBI of the year.
Sanchez scored four times to match his career high, and crossed the plate a remarkable 12 times in the series, as compared to the 16 runs that Cal State San Bernardino totaled. He was 2-for-4 with two walks.
Defensively, things could have been made more nervous had it not been for Larsen's shoestring grab of a liner that seemed destined to be a game-tying, two-run single for Ryan Rich in that big Coyote fifth, but instead ended the inning. Larsen moved to right in the seventh, and in the eighth, made another tough catch up against the wall on a deep drive by Austin Lundeen that looked a legitimate home run threat. White ranged all the way over to the line in shallow right for a popout to end the fourth.
Redshirt freshman Erik Amundson needed two pitches to get the final out in the eighth, and senior left-hander Eric Moersen pitched a clean ninth with a called third strike, swinging strikeout and flyout around a one-out hit by Coyote shortstop William Ouellette, who went 5-for-5 with five singles and an RBI.
UCSD faces another four-game, split-venue series with a CCAA South Division foe next weekend in Cal State LA. The teams will play a pair of single contests in La Jolla on Friday, March 4 (6 p.m.) and Saturday, March 5 (2 p.m.), before the series concludes at Reeder Field on the CSULA campus on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Triton Notes: UCSD is 14-0 when scoring at least three runs in a game, and 10-0 when starting a true freshman on the mound ... Tyler Howsley has started 73 straight games, all at shortstop, dating back to the 2015 opener ... True freshman Preston Mott drew his third collegiate start on the mound, but has still yet to figure in a decision ... Jack Larsen's first-inning home run was the 10th of his college career ... Larsen equaled his career highs in runs and RBI, having previously knocked in four on April 12, 2015, at home against Cal State Monterey Bay ... Larsen drove in 10 runs over the four-game weekend series, giving him a second 10-RBI week this season after UCSD's six-game marathon, Feb. 11-14 ... The five-run Coyote fifth was the largest by a UCSD opponent in 2016, with Concordia having produced a four-run ninth in a 5-0 Triton loss on Feb. 19 ... UCSD out-scored CSUSB for the weekend, 50-16, after a 40-9 mark during a 3-1 series victory last year ... Gradeigh Sanchez also scored four runs in a home game against CSUSB on April 21, 2015 ... Brandon Shirley's only previous four-RBI game in his career also came at home against CSUSB, on March 21, 2015 ... Shirley's eighth-inning triple was his second of 2016, giving UCSD a league-best nine ... UCSD's last four-game CCAA series sweep came in La Jolla over Chico State, March 6-8, 2015 ... The Tritons' last seven-game win streak came during the 2014 season, March 28-April 5.
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