LA JOLLA, Calif. - The seventh-ranked University of California San Diego baseball team bounced back from a rough California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) opener Friday night and swept a Saturday doubleheader from San Francisco State University at Triton Ballpark.
UC San Diego routed the Gators 10-2 in game one behind a season-high 15 hits and a five-run third inning. In the shortened seven-inning nightcap, the Tritons overturned a 4-0 deficit with two scores in the fifth and three more in the seventh, walking off on an infield error in that decisive frame with a 5-4 triumph.
The sweep of the twin bill moves UC San Diego to 6-2 overall and 2-1 in the CCAA, the Tritons jumping directly into first in the early league standings. SF State fell to 1-7 overall and 1-2 in league play.
UC San Diego will look for the series victory as it concludes its four-game set with San Francisco State on Sunday, Feb. 18. First pitch at Triton Ballpark on East Campus in La Jolla comes at 12 p.m. Parking is free. Those unable to attend can watch in high definition on UCSDtritons.tv for a fee of $5.99.
Game One - No. 7 UCSD 10, SFSU 2
Having left the bases loaded four times on Friday night in stranding a remarkable 18 runners, UC San Diego had another such opportunity in the second inning, and this time made good. A leadoff Alex Eliopulos (La Jolla/La Jolla HS) double into the gap in right center, one-out Rj Prince infield single and Nick Kitzmann hit-by-pitch filled the bags for Brandon Stewart. The redshirt freshman centerfielder from Temecula slapped a two-run single into left for the first runs batted in of his college career.
The five-run third featured six straight clutch, two-out singles by the Tritons, the last five of them of the station-to-station RBI variety by Prince, Kitzmann, Stewart, Kyle Selor and Shay Whitcomb. Selor is another redshirt freshman for whom it marked a first career RBI, in his first college start. Tyler Durna had walked on four tosses to lead off before SF State registered the first two outs. UCSD sent 10 men to the plate.
In command at 7-0, the Tritons tacked on a single run in the sixth on a bases-loaded, first-pitch Eliopulos sacrifice fly to center.
The sides traded a pair of runs in the eighth. The Gators prevented UCSD's first shutout of 2018 on an RBI Jackson Kritsch triple that hit the grass and eluded rightfielder Zander Clarke, and a run-scoring infield single by Jack Harris.
The home side got both of them back, on a two-out RBI double by Clarke to left center, and Prince's RBI single to center.
Stewart finished 2-for-3 with a walk, run and three RBI. Prince was 3-for-5 with two runs and two RBI. Whitcomb, Clarke and senior Jesse Moore added two hits apiece.
Junior left-hander Preston Mott (1-0) earned his first winning decision of the new campaign by tossing six shutout innings with three hits and one walk against him and seven strikeouts. Sophomore right-hander Ted Stuka notched his first college save by getting the final nine outs. He fanned four.
Mott got in some trouble in the first due to a leadoff walk and first-pitch Kritsch single. He got out of it, however, with a swinging strikeout, infield popout and called third strike. He would go on to retire 12 straight Gators between a one-out single in the second and a one-out single in the sixth, putting together three perfect frames in succession. Stuka went 1-2-3 in the ninth with a strikeout and two groundouts.
Defensively in the second, Whitcomb took a hop-step to his left and made a great, leaping snare of a Brady Dorn liner for starters. Eliopulos dove toward the foul line to snatch another hot shot to end the very next inning, off the bat of Chris Smutny. Last but certainly not least, Eliopulos charged and bare-handed a Chris Hayman bunt before firing across the diamond to Durna in one fluid motion to cap the fifth.
Senior left-hander Dillon Houser (0-2) took the loss for the Gators. Kritsch finished with three of the Gators' six hits.
Game Two - No. 7 UCSD 5, SFSU 4 (7)
The home seventh began with Stewart fouling off a 3-2 pitch and taking ball four. Whitcomb then poked a 1-2 offering up the middle, off the pitcher's glove, for a single that put Tritons at the corners. A pitching change moved junior first baseman Harley Lopez from first base to the mound for the first time at least for this season. Lopez hit Durna with his second throw to load the bases, still with nobody out. Prince then managed a soft grounder that traveled just off the mound, and Lopez went and corralled it with ease, but just as it looked like he was going to throw home for the force, he slipped on the slick evening grass and had no play. It went down as a third infield single for Prince for the series.
Up came the CCAA's RBI leader, Eliopulos, who bounced a grounder to second baseman Chris Smutny. Smutny had no play at the plate, but couldn't find the handle at all, as Whitcomb scored easily, and Durna also came sprinting around third for the walk-off winner. The scoring decision went down as an error all the way, but one RBI credited to Eliopulos for his 15th already this year, and Durna's winner unearned against Lopez (0-1), who took the loss.
The three-run rally made a winner out of freshman right-hander Noah Conlon (2-0), who only surrendered an unearned run, without allowing a hit, with one walk and one strikeout over 2.2 innings. Jack Rupe, Jr., had started. After giving up solo home runs to Kritsch and Harris in the first, the senior right-hander retired eight in a row between a one-out double in the second and a leadoff double in the fifth, both by Dorn. He worked around the first one, with a called third strike and a groundout, but two errors ultimately gave SFSU two more runs to cap the latter sequence.
UCSD got those two runs right back, however, in the home fifth, also capitalizing on a defensive miscue. Stewart reached on a one-out Kritsch error. After a flyout, Stewart swiped second, but he didn't have to, as Durna laced an RBI triple into the right field corner. After a pitching change, Justin Beck dropped a pinch-hit, first-pitch, opposite-field RBI double inside the line in left field. Eliopulos then looked to have gotten the Tritons one step closer, but Lopez climbed the ladder to make a huge catch to end it.
Making his first collegiate start at catcher, redshirt freshman Aaron Kim threw out a would-be base-runner on his first try to end the first, and also tracked back behind the dish to make the basket catch of a high pop fly up against the netting in the sixth.
Triton Notes: Game One: UC San Diego scored first for the first time in 2018, in Saturday's initial meeting ... Game Two: The result marked the Tritons' first walk-off triumph of 2018 ... Brandon Stewart's fifth-inning steal was the Tritons' first attempted steal this year.
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