LA JOLLA, Calif. - UC San Diego rallied three times from a deficit to walk off in the opener before cruising in the nightcap and completing the sweep of a California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) baseball doubleheader over visiting Stanislaus State Saturday afternoon at Triton Ballpark. Scores of the two regulation nine-inning contests were 11-10 in 10 frames and 10-2.
The results moved UCSD to 22-11 overall and 12-9 in the CCAA. Stanislaus State dropped to 15-14 overall and 7-11 in league play. The Tritons have clinched the series victory in the three-game set, and have still not lost a regular-season CCAA series to Stan State since 2006, when they dropped three of four in Turlock.
In the wake of a season-long four-game losing skid, Triton skipper Eric Newman turned to a pair of true freshmen to start the two ends of Saturday's twin bill on the mound. Left-hander Preston Mott retired the final eight Warriors he faced for his seventh no-decision in eight starts in game one while his teammates came back from being down 4-0, 9-5 and 10-9. Right-hander Kyle Mora (3-0) then tossed a season-best six shutout frames with a season-high six strikeouts in the nightcap.
UCSD benefitted from 12 walks in that second game to match its season high, and 19 bases on balls on the day. The Tritons lead the CCAA for a third straight season.
Redshirt sophomore catcher Steven Coe (Valley Center/Valley Center HS) hit an opposite-field RBI single that landed just inside the right field line with the bases loaded and one out in the 10th to bring home sophomore designated hitter and fellow San Diego native Tyler Plantier (Poway/Del Norte HS) with the decisive run in the first game, which took four hours and 13 minutes to complete, marking the second-longest contest for UCSD in 2016. It was a third walk-off triumph for the Tritons this year, with Coe having scored both of those winners.
Plantier's third home run of the year, a mammoth shot over the left field fence, knotted the score a third and final time at 10-10 to lead off the eighth. The Tritons' only lead came courtesy of Coe's walk-off single.
UCSD then scored seven runs in the first frame of the nightcap and was not tested.
UCSD and Stan State conclude the three-game series with a single meeting on Sunday, April 3. First pitch at Triton Ballpark is set for 12 p.m. Live video will be available at UCSDtritons.tv and live stats here.
Game One - UCSD 11, STAN 10 (10)
In the home 10th, Plantier accepted a one-out, four-pitch walk from Ryan Paramo (0-1), and stole second ahead of a free pass to Justin Flatt. Chris Senn relieved Paramo, and promptly walked Vince Mori (Oceanside/Palomar College/Westview HS) on five tosses. Coe, who had only just taken over behind the dish to begin the eighth, then deposited an 0-1 offering into right to score Plantier.
Coe had already managed to make his presence felt on the defensive side of things. In the ninth, Charlie Gaff reached on a two-out error, and stole his team-leading ninth base in 10 attempts. The junior leftfielder may have gotten a little greedy, however, and tried to also swipe third, with Coe notching his 14th caught stealing to end the inning. The Warriors then strung together four straight singles to open the 10th, but came away with nothing. Coe first picked Nick Ippolito off of first after his leadoff single. It helped that Ippolito slipped trying to get back to the bag after Tim Nelson's throw home. Nelson himself then got in on the action on the bases, as after allowing a single to Scott Stetson, the freshman right-hander picked the senior off.
Two more Warrior singles ensued. Nelson went to a fastball away at 1-2 on Nick Molina, for ball two. He went right back to that pitch, and this time got the strike call to end the threat, allowing Coe to add to his heroics moments later. Nelson (4-1) picked up his team-best fourth win in relief.
Mott settled in after a bit of a rocky start and turned in 1-2-3 frames in the fourth and fifth, exiting with the score level at 5-5.
The teams had traded three-run frames in the second, with the visitors collecting single tallies in the first and third, the opener of the unearned variety as it came across on a two-out infield error.
The Tritons got a pair in the fourth, starting the inning with a Michael Palos single and Tyler Howsley double, before Brandon Shirley laced his team-best fourth triple into the gap in right center to chase both of them home. Howsley's double was his first extra-base hit of 2016, hit just inside the left field line. The three knocks came on successive pitches from Warrior starter Jordan Kron.
UCSD and Stan State then once again put up matching totals in the sixth after Mott's departure, this time getting four runs apiece. The Tritons took advantage of three errors in their half, to the tune of three unearned scores directly from this miscues. Shirley ignited the rally with a leadoff single, with JD Hearn adding an RBI single.
Stan State parlayed a leadoff single by Gaff and passed ball into an unearned run in the eighth. It could have been worse, except for another stellar play at shortstop from Howsley to end the frame. With the bases loaded, Nelson came on, and on his first pitch, Aldo Koutsoyanopulos stung a ball up the middle that spun Howsley around as the junior gloved it, before calmly flipping to Hearn for the out at second.
From there, it only took two pitches for Plantier to answer as he demolished Rollin Tyler's 0-1 offering.
Senior right-hander Trey Ferketic entered the fray and contributed a seven-pitch, 1-2-3 seventh for UCSD.
Plantier scored four runs for the second time this year. Shirley wound up 3-for-4 with his triple, a hit-by-pitch, one run and three RBI. The Tritons generated a season-high five extra-base hits.
The teams combined for seven errors for the game. The first strikeout by either side didn't come until Mott got Molina swinging for the second out of the fifth. That strikeout was bookended by a pair of strong throws to first from Howsley.
Game Two - UCSD 10, STAN 2
UCSD sent 12 men to the plate and scored seven times on four hits and two errors to effectively end game two in the first inning. The Tritons managed just three hits from there and got their 10 runs from just seven hits, with the dozen walks largely the difference.
Mora faced the minimum up until an uncharacteristic error by Howsley with two gone in the fifth, but quickly cleaned that up with a called third strike. He had earlier negated a one-out single in the first with a 5-4-3 double play, and started a 1-6-3 twin killing to offset a leadoff walk in the second. Mora generated a pair of perfect frames in the third and fourth, with three groundouts, two strikeouts and a flyout, and also worked around a two-out single in the sixth with his sixth punchout.
Fellow true freshmen Brent Bell and Kyle Lucke each took over for a scoreless inning before the Warriors finally were able to push across an unearned pair in the ninth. Bell loaded the bases on a leadoff single and two walks, but got Nathan Chunn looking. Lucke fanned a pair.
Gradeigh Sanchez and Tyler Durna each had a double among two hits apiece, with Durna dumping his first collegiate two-bagger opposite field into shallow center to open the home sixth. The true freshman scored twice and drove in one. Plantier had another strong outing, going 1-for-2 with three walks, two runs, two RBI, and his second stolen base on the day. He has five on the year. Plantier walked more than once in a single game for the first time in his career. Hearn drew a season-high three walks of his own.
Triton Notes: UCSD is 21-2 in 2016 when it scores three runs or more and 17-5 at home ... Tyler Howsley has started 90 straight games, all at shortstop, dating back to the 2015 opener ... Howsley and Jack Larsen are the only Tritons to start all 33 games in 2016 ... Gradeigh Sanchez is the only other Triton to appear in all 33 games, with 31 starts ... UCSD reached double figures in runs in back-to-back games for the first time this year, and has five such efforts in 2016 ... Game One: UCSD is 7-4 in one-run games and has three walk-off wins ... The Tritons allowed a season-high 10 runs ... Preston Mott started his first series opener, with seven of eight starts now coming at home ... Brandon Shirley hit No. 9 for the fifth straight game ... Game Two: Kyle Mora drew his second start, the other one coming Feb. 11, also at home, against UT-Permian Basin (4.0 IP, ND) ... The other time that UCSD worked 12 walks as a team this year was the 16-5 home win over Cal State San Bernardino in the series finale back on Feb. 28, with Mora also earning the winning decision that day ... Vince Mori appeared at shortstop for the first time as a Triton, taking over defensively for Howsley to begin the sixth ... The Tritons have drawn double-digit walks four times now in 2016.
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