LA JOLLA, Calif. - A potent offense and a strong pitching performance by senior Mitch Hickey led the University of California San Diego baseball team to a 12-1 victory over Cal State San Bernardino in the opening game of a California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) series Thursday night at Triton Ballpark.
With its season-best fifth consecutive victory, UC San Diego improved to 25-13 overall and 21-12 in the CCAA. CSUSB dropped to 11-28 and 11-21. The game was the only CCAA activity for Thursday, with the second-place Tritons now just 1.5 games behind 22nd-ranked league leader Cal State Monterey Bay (28-10, 22-10 CCAA). The Otters begin their four-game series at Sonoma State on Friday afternoon at 2 p.m.
The Tritons scored in five different innings and broke the game wide open in the eighth with six runs. Nick Kitzmann and Steven Schuknecht each had solo homers in the inning, while Zander Clarke cranked a grand slam for his team-leading 11th blast of the season. Clarke finished his night with six RBI as seven Tritons drove in at least one run.
Hickey gave up just the one earned run while scattering five hits over six innings of work. He matched a career-high with eight strikeouts to improve to 3-3 on the year.
The Tritons trotted out to a 4-0 advantage over the first three frames. Shay Whitcomb led things off in the opening inning with a five-pitch walk off senior right-hander Matthew Moriarty (0-6). After swiping his second base with one away, the true freshman shortstop came home on Alex Eliopulos' (La Jolla/La Jolla HS) clutch two-out RBI single to center. UCSD loaded the bases from there, but could get no more.
The visitors came right out and filled the bags in their second with one away, on back-to-back singles and a walk all coming after a flyout. Hickey buckled down, however, and struck out the next two Coyotes swinging, to keep the 1-0 edge intact. That walk was the right-hander's first since March 26. He had gone three outings and 13 complete innings without one since. Hickey walked one in each of the first two innings Thursday night, but those were it.
Kitzmann sent his third double into the gap in left center to begin the home second, and Brandon Stewart followed with his team-best fifth sacrifice. Whitcomb's single doubled the advantage. A wild pitch and team-leading 12th double by Tyler Durna made it 3-0. Another walk led off a scoring third for UC San Diego, as Rj Prince took his free base, moved to second on a groundout, and scored on Justin Beck's single.
CSUSB pulled one right back in the fourth, but the Tritons tallied two more in the sixth on Clarke's two-out, two-run double to center. Three walks had loaded the bases, including an intentional one to Durna just ahead of Clarke's trip to the plate.
Kitzmann took the first pitch of the big eighth and roped it opposite field over the wall down the right field line. The Tritons filled the bags again in time for Clarke's at-bat, with a Stewart single and two more walks, and he cleared them with his second grand slam of 2018 deep into the night in left. Following a third pitching change and two outs, Schuknecht sent a 3-1 offering deep down the right field line and just foul. On the very next toss, he straightened it out and launched his third home run over the scoreboard in right center. It was his first since Feb. 24.
UC San Diego put the leadoff man on base in five of its eight turns at the dish, and those were the five innings in which it scored. Three were via walks, and the other two thanks to extra-base knocks by Kitzmann. The 12 runs came on just 10 hits, but nine Coyote walks.
Hickey had perfect innings in the third and fifth, both, coincidentally, with two strikeouts and a groundout. He worked around a leadoff double in the sixth, through a called third strike, a groundout to Eliopulos at third, and a swinging strikeout on his final batter. Hickey notched two outs on strikes in the second, third, fifth and sixth.
Junior right-hander Kyle Lucke took over and faced the minimum over two innings. A leadoff single in the seventh led to an immediate out as the Coyote batter tried to extend it to a double, and Prince threw him out from left with Beck applying the tag. It was the junior's first outfield assist as a Triton, in his sixth outfield start. Lucke fanned a pair. Blaine Jarvis handled the ninth and ducked around a one-out single.
Clarke started the game 0-for-3 before the successive bases-loaded hauls, finishing 2-for-5 with a double, home run and run scored on top of his season-best six RBI. Kitzmann was 2-for-4, also with a double and home run, and two runs and an RBI. Whitcomb and Durna each went 1-for-3 with two walks and an RBI, with Whitcomb scoring three times to match his season high, and Durna once. Prince had two walks and Stewart a couple of runs.
Game two of the four-game set is slated for Friday at 6 p.m. at Triton Ballpark. The series concludes Saturday with a 1 p.m. doubleheader at Fiscalini Field in San Bernardino.
Triton Notes: Alex Eliopulos is the only Triton to start or appear in all 38 games ... Justin Beck extended his current team-best reached-base streak to 24 games with his one-out, RBI single in the third inning ... Zander Clarke's six RBI are a season high, and give him back the CCAA lead in that category over his own teammate, Eliopulos, at 51-49 ... Clarke also pushes ahead of Eliopulos with his 11th home run, now tied for first in the CCAA with Cal State Monterey Bay senior Hayden Duer ... Three more home runs increase UC San Diego's league-best season total over 40 to 41 ... The Tritons have now hit five grand slams in 2018, with two each by Clarke and Eliopulos, and the other by Tyler Durna ... In the eighth inning tonight, UC San Diego hit three home runs in the same frame for the second time this season, having gone back-to-back-to-back with Durna, Clarke and Eliopulos in the sixth inning of the 25-2 home romp over Cal State East Bay on March 29 ... Nick Kitzmann threw out his eighth would-be base-runner on his 17th attempt, to end the fourth.
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