AZUSA, Calif. - The 14th-ranked University of California San Diego blanked No. 9 Azusa Pacific University, 4-0, behind a one-hit complete-game shutout by senior right-hander Adrian Orozco in the winner's bracket of the 2017 NCAA Division II Championship West Regional on Friday night at Cougar Baseball Complex.
Fourth-seeded UC San Diego was the home team by rotational rule, improving to 38-17 on the season. Second-seeded Pacific West Conference (PacWest) champion Azusa Pacific, thus that league's automatic NCAA tourney entrant, moved to 41-11.
UCSD remains in the winner's bracket and with results earlier in the day, in fact is the lone unbeaten left in the regional, sitting strong at 2-0 and advancing directly into a 7 p.m. tilt on Saturday, May 20, against a team that will have already played that day. APU drops down into an elimination tilt against two-time defending West Region champion and No. 6 seed, Cal Poly Pomona, which dropped a tough 6-5 decision in 10 innings to No. 3 seed Dixie State in Friday's middle game. The winner of that contest would advance into that primetime date with the Tritons. Top seed Chico State, the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) regular-season and tournament champion, was surprisingly the first to exit after successive losses, the latter a 14-2 affair with fifth seed California Baptist to begin Friday's activity.
Orozco (9-0), a fifth-year senior out of Chula Vista and Otay Ranch High School, was exquisite on this night. In going a season-long 9.0 innings in shutout fashion, he took a no-hit bid into the ninth before settling for the one-hitter. Orozco walked two and hit one, achieving his 11th strikeout on his very last throw. He retired the first 18 in order, with five strikeouts and six groundouts. Orozco in fact fanned the first batter in each of the first three innings, four of the first five, and five of nine in all.
Orozco began the ninth by striking out pinch-hitter Sean Aspinall, but then walked Cam Bennett at the top of the order on four tosses. After taking a ball, PacWest and Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) West Region Player of the Year Pablo O'Connor scalded a ball toward the shortstop hole, with Tyler Howsley going to ground and only able to get a glove on it as the ball slid past him for a clear single. There was nothing more the senior wizard could do on the play.
The no-hitter gone and a task still at hand, the most important one at that, with the tying run standing in the on-deck circle, Orozco was not rattled, getting Justin Gomez to line out to left and then perhaps appropriately, striking out former Otay Ranch teammate, and namesake, Adrian Tovalin, for a fourth time to shut the door.
No Cougar saw anything beyond first base until the eighth. Orozco only got to a three-ball count twice ahead of his first runner in the seventh, and six times in all.
Orozco's effort perfectly complemented fellow redshirt senior, Chula Vista product and roommate, Troy Cruz, who himself went all nine innings (2 R, 1 ER) in a 5-2 masterpiece to get things going for the Tritons at this regional just 24 hours prior. They are the first two complete games for UCSD this season, now with five shutouts.
This is now two straight Fridays in which a Triton has legitimately flirted with a no-hitter. Junior right-hander Kyle Goodbrand took a no-no into the eighth inning in an elimination-game victory at the CCAA Championship exactly one week ago, before allowing a one-out single. Goodbrand, incidentally, is Saturday's projected starter.
Orozco silenced the home crowd of the Cougars virtually all night, and in return, got a rousing ovation from the Triton families, fans and friends on hand upon emerging from the dugout and entering the spectator area.
Back to the beginning, Orozco again had struck out the night's first batter, PacWest stolen base leader Bennett, on four pitches. He went 2-0 to the next two batters before retiring both, on a flyout and groundout.
UCSD threatened in the first as Brandon Shirley reached on a one-out throwing error and immediately took second on a wild pitch. As Tyler Durna walked, however, Shirley was caught in between second and third, and a flyout ended that.
Senior right-hander Michael Fairchild had set down six in a row for APU, including three in succession on strikes, when Jack Larsen and Shirley produced two-out singles on back-to-back pitches in the third. The two strikeouts to begin that inning were in fact looking on just six tosses. Fairchild then, however, walked Durna again to load the bases. Redshirt sophomore third baseman Alex Eliopulos (La Jolla/La Jolla HS) stung a 1-1 pitch on a line to center, which Bennett dropped for a huge two-run error as UCSD grabbed the 2-0 lead. It was Bennett's first error now in 121 chances, and also all that Orozco would need.
Beginning the fourth, Larsen sprinted to the line in right and dove headfirst to make a spectacular grab, further dampening Bennett's evening. A groundout and popout took him through a fourth straight perfect inning.
The Tritons missed a golden opportunity to add to their lead in the home fourth. Redshirt freshman leftfielder Keenan Brigman singled sharply up the middle with the first pitch, moved to second on a wild one, and to third on a throwing miscue by the catcher, still with no outs, as APU already had three errors in the game. Fairchild, however, struck out the next three batters, all swinging, to leave Brigman at third.
Larsen drew a five-pitch walk to lead off the home fifth. Shirley bunted him over, and was called out on a very close play at first thanks to nice execution by the fifth-year senior. On a third straight Fairchild offering with action, Durna stroked an RBI single through the right side to send Larsen charging around third for 3-0.
Brigman knocked a one-out single through the left side on a two-strike count in the sixth, and on Fairchild's very next throw, fellow freshman Chad Crosbie drilled an RBI double into the gap in right center.
Orozco's perfecto was then finally no more, as his inside pitch for seventh-inning starters went a touch too far, contacting Bennett. He only got stronger, striking out the 2-3-4 hitters in order from there, all swinging. A leadoff walk in the eighth preceded consecutive groundouts that moved the Cougar runner to third, but Orozco was equal to the task, turning away Nick Estrella swinging.
A crisp play came in that top of the eighth with one away and a Cougar at second via walk and grounder. Michael Franco chopped one to the right side. It could have been a tough play for Durna on the short hop, but he must have been called off by his senior second baseman, as he stepped right through it to let JD Hearn collect the ball and throw to Orozco covering the bag for the easy second out.
Brigman finished as the only player in the game with multiple hits, going 2-for-4 with a run scored. Crosbie was 1-for-3 with the double and RBI. Durna went 1-for-2 with two walks and an RBI, with Larsen 1-for-3 with a walk and a pair of runs.
Fairchild (8-2) gave up four runs, two of them earned, on six hits and three walks over 6.0 innings. He struck out eight. Fairchild's only perfect frame came in the second, with two punchouts around a flyout.
Triton Notes: UCSD is 23-16 over nine NCAA Division II Championship appearances, including 9-6 in its fourth trip under head coach Eric Newman ... The Tritons are 13-22 against Azusa Pacific all-time, and 2-1 at the NCAA Championship ... The teams had not met since splitting a pair of 2015 West Regional matchups in nearby Walnut, UCSD ultimately ending APU's season (5-3) after an opening defeat (17-11) to the Cougars ... Tyler Howsley extended his consecutive games played streak to 164 dating back to the 2015 opener ... Jack Larsen has appeared in 119 straight games, all of them starts ... JD Hearn has appeared in 86 games in a row, all of them starts ... Hearn, Howsley and Larsen are the only Tritons to appear in all 55 games this season, with only Hearn and Larsen starting each ... Adrian Orozco drew his 14th start of the year to grab a share of the team lead, and 15th of his Triton career ... Orozco has still gone at least 5.0 innings in all 14 of his starts this year, and at least 6.0 in six straight, including back-to-back season-long efforts of 7.2 and 9.0 frames in the postseason ... Orozco reached double digits in strikeouts for the second time in 2017, falling one shy of his career-high 12 from a March 12 home defeat of Cal State Monterey Bay in which he only went 6.0 innings ... No other Triton hurler has struck out more than nine this year ... Trevor Decker is the last Triton to throw a no-hitter, that one of the seven-inning variety, on March 14, 2009, at Cal State Stanislaus ... Orozco's is UCSD's first nine-inning shutout since All-American ace Justin Donatella at Cal State East Bay on Feb. 27, 2015, that one ironically also a one-hit shutout with a hit-by-pitch and 11 strikeouts ... The complete games by Troy Cruz last night and Orozco tonight are UCSD's first back-to-back complete games, and first successive postseason complete games, since Tim Shibuya (9.0 IP) and Matt Rossman (11.0) at the 2010 NCAA Division II Championship in Cary, N.C., May 22-24, 2010 ... The last time UCSD one-hit an opponent was a seven-inning 9-1 home defeat of Cal State San Bernardino on Feb. 13, 2016, with current Tritons Kyle Lucke (5.0 IP in college debut) and Travis Roberts (2.0) combining that day ... Larsen's two-out single in the third extended his reached-base streak to 37 games ... Chad Crosbie's sixth-inning double was his ninth, among his 23 hits ... To end the eighth, Hearn was caught stealing for only the second time in 2017 on 11 tries, and third time for his Triton career on 22 ... UCSD's incredible streak of 11 straight games with a home run, a record for the program's Division II era (since 2001), and presumed to be an all-time mark, was snapped ... The shutout was the Tritons' first since April 8, 7-0 at home against then-top-ranked Chico State ... UCSD's starters' ERA this postseason is 2.28, with 14 earned runs over 55.1 innings during this eight-game stretch, and all but one outing going at least 6.0 frames ... UCSD Athletics Hall of Famer Rick Nowak was among those in attendance, as was as another former Triton Baseball ace in Ryan Goodbrand.
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