STOCKTON, Calif. - With its 2016 season down to a final out, UC San Diego struck for three runs and walked off a dramatic 7-6 winner over Chico State to stay alive at the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Baseball Championship at Banner Island Ballpark Thursday afternoon.
Redshirt sophomore catcher Steven Coe (Valley Center/Valley Center HS) grounded a 1-2 pitch up the middle for an RBI single that sent JD Hearn scurrying around third with the decider. Hearn had deposited a two-run double, also with two gone and a 1-2 count against him, into the gap in left center to tie the game, with Justin Flatt sprinting home ahead of relief pitcher Travis Roberts in his first collegiate pinch-running appearance. Hearn actually came close to ending it himself with a three-run, walk-off home run, banging his effort of the wall.
It was an exquisite ninth for fifth-year UCSD head coach Eric Newman's gritty club. Flatt was narrowly denied a second double down the right field line, as this time the umpire signaled foul, before the redshirt sophomore slapped an opposite-field, two-strike single anyway to left center for starters. The Wildcats countered left-handed pinch-hitter Zach Friedman with left-hander AJ Epstein, and Newman instead went to Vince Mori (Oceanside/Palomar College/Westview HS). The junior made the move pay off, producing his first hit since April 17 as he dropped a single in front of centerfielder Sonny Cortez. Gradeigh Sanchez laid down the sacrifice, Chico State barely even throwing him out at first as the catcher contemplated going to third to nab Flatt as the lead runner.
Tim White took two balls after a couple of strikes and flared one to left, but into Cody Snider's glove for the second out. Steven Baker (4-6) came on to allow Hearn's tying double, Chico State had little choice but to intentionally walk Jack Larsen, and Grant Wright relieved Baker in time to make Coe the last of many heroes on the day.
Larsen's two massive home runs to right, a two-run shot in the first and another to lead off the eighth that pulled UCSD to within two at 6-4, proved vital as well as the Tritons welcomed their star out of an 0-for-22 stretch when they needed him most.
Fourth-seeded UCSD, the designated home team by virtue of Wednesday night's coin flip, improved to 31-20. Sixth-seeded Chico State fell to 32-20. The Tritons were swept in their three-game series in Chico, March 25-26, but have now won six straight CCAA tournament matchups between the rivals, including two at Banner Island Ballpark en route to their record sixth banner in 2014.
The Tritons next take on 25th-ranked top seed Cal Poly Pomona in an elimination game Friday at 3 p.m. CPP lost 6-2 to Chico State in Wednesday's tourney opener, meaning Chico State is not eliminated yet, either. The Broncos flipped that score Thursday to make Cal State San Bernardino the first team to exit the competition. The Wildcats will take on CSUMB in an elimination contest on Friday at 11 a.m.
The bullpen was not to be overlooked in comparison to the offense, as a trio of arms enabled the Tritons to tally five unanswered and rally back from a 6-2 deficit. A pair of seniors, right-hander Alon Leichman and left-hander Eric Moersen, combined with redshirt freshman Erik Amundson in between in giving up just three singles over 5.1 shutout frames while the UCSD bats went to work.
Amundson, who was absent from the mound from March 5 until April 23, continued his late-season surge and turned in a season-long 2.2 innings of no-hit baseball. All three of his strikeouts came in a 1-2-3 eighth, swinging, looking and swinging. He ducked around a leadoff hit-by-pitch in the seventh thanks to a 4-6-3 double play and another groundout on back-to-back throws. The right-hander got the first two outs in the ninth, both on the infield. Moersen (1-0) recorded the final out and instead of calling it a college career, improbably gathered his first collegiate win.
As it's been known to do, Chico State laid down bunts on the first two pitches of the afternoon, and netted a single and sacrifice to immediately put a runner in scoring position. After a groundout to advance Cortez to third and a walk, a wild pitch put the Wildcats up 1-0 without a ball leaving the infield.
Hearn worked a seven-pitch walk with two away in home half, which proved critical, as Larsen absolutely massacred the first pitch he saw from Dalton Erb to deep right. It was Larsen's team-best fifth home run, first since Feb. 28, and first outside of La Jolla in 2016.
Kyle Mora, UCSD's true freshman right-hander, came right back out and retired Chico State in order on 10 pitches, with two groundouts and a flyout.
Flatt went just inside the right field line for a two-out double in the second, but second baseman Cameron Santos made a nice play and throw just in time to Erb covering the bag.
Chico State led off the third with a second bunt single. Mora turned away the next two batters, but Ben Gamba, the CCAA's RBI leader, lifted a two-run shot, also his fifth, over the wall in left, to regain a 3-2 edge for the 'Cats.
UCSD moved a man to second with two gone again in the fourth as Hearn dropped a single between the second baseman and rightfielder, and went to second on a balk. Erb popped up Larsen, however.
The Wildcats loaded the bases without benefit of a hit in the fourth, and after a pitching change, back-to-back singles to center brought in three more for a 6-2 lead.
Sanchez and White snuck two-out singles through the left and right side, respectively, to snap a string of six straight turned away by Erb, in the fifth. Hearn and Larsen then worked walks around a wild pitch that brought Sanchez in from third for 6-3. After a pitching change, Coe lined a 2-1 offering from Stuart Bradley out to the leftfielder.
Larsen's second moon shot well over the right field wall, led off the home eighth and pulled UCSD one run closer at 6-4.
Mora went 3.2 innings and allowed a season-high six runs on just three hits, two bunt singles and the Gamba home run, and three walks. Leichman relieved him in the fourth and got three groundouts in a six-pitch fifth. On the first of those, he sprang off the mound to gather a swinging bunt before firing a bullet to Flatt at first. Leichman went 2.1 shutout frames.
Leichman cleaned up a one-out single and ensuing walk in the sixth with a 9-3 flyout double play as Chico shortstop Casey Bennett presumably forgot how many outs there were, and strayed way off the first-base bag for Larsen to double him up. Ironically, Larsen and Bennett were teammates, as were Sanchez and shortstop Tyler Howsley, at Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo. It marked Larsen's team-best ninth outfield assist, as well as UCSD's CCAA-best 50th twin killing.
Larsen finished 2-for-3 with his two missiles, two walks, two runs and three RBI. Hearn was also 2-for-3 with the double, two walks, two runs and two RBI. White and Flatt added two hits apiece.
Erb gave up three runs on five hits and three walks over 4.2 frames. The 6-foot-8 junior right-hander, like Mora making his postseason debut for his side, fanned one. Erb set the Tritons down in order in the fourth, while Bradley did so in the sixth.
Triton Notes: UCSD is 30-5 when scoring three or more runs and 9-11 away from home ... Making their 12th appearance at the CCAA Championship, the Tritons are 25-15 (.625), including 11-5 in Stockton, 4-1 at Banner Island Ballpark, and 8-4 in four trips under fifth-year head coach Eric Newman ... UCSD leads the all-time series with Chico State, 40-36, and is 9-3 against the Wildcats in CCAA tourney play ... Tyler Howsley has started 108 straight games, all at shortstop, dating back to the 2015 opener ... Howsley and Jack Larsen are the only Tritons to start or even appear in all 51 games in 2016 ... Larsen was in the cleanup position for the second straight game and second time this year ... Gradeigh Sanchez was in the lineup as the designated hitter for the sixth time this year ... Kyle Mora earned his eighth start ... Justin Flatt, making his first start since May 1, produced his sixth double in the second ... The third-inning home run was the fifth off of Mora, the most against a Triton pitcher ... The Tritons walked four times, as they pace the league for a third straight year, now with 223 ... UCSD turned a pair of double plays to increase its CCAA-best total to 51 ... Larsen provided his second game this year with two home runs, and second of his college career ... Erik Amundson has not given up a run since his April 23 return to action (eight appearances and 6.2 IP) ... Amundson began the day with four strikeouts this season over 9.1 frames, and fanned a season-best three ... UCSD has six walk-off triumphs, with Steven Coe involved in four (two hits).
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