LA JOLLA, Calif. – After a shaky start from the defense, UC San Diego baseball settled down and beat CSUN 3-1 to open the four-game series at Triton Ballpark Thursday night. Cameron Leonard pitched seven strong innings in his final start of his career. The Tritons improve to 22-27 and 19-18 in Big West action while CSUN falls to 20-17 overall as well as in Big West games. 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
A pair of errors put the leadoff batters on board to start the game. The Tritons undid the damage when they threw out the second base runner and Cameron Leonard picked off a base runner to end the inning.
 
Aaron Kim drew a leadoff walk in the second, advanced from a single from Jackson Kritsch and a wild pitch and scored when Everett Lau singled to shallow left field.
 
Robert Bullard recorded CSUN's first hit of the game against Leonard in the fourth and Ryan Ball brought him home to tie the game 1-1.
 
Kim gave the Tritons the lead back in the fifth with a single to left field to plate Michael Fuhrman at home and make it a 2-1 game.
 
A solo home run over left field from Anthony Lucchetti to start the bottom of the seventh inning increased the lead to two runs.
 
Leonard only gave up one run and two walks through seven innings while tossing four strikeouts. He also had a put out and a pair of assists.
 
Michael Mitchell pitched the final two innings of the game. While he faced adversity with bases loaded and two outs in the ninth, he threw a strikeout to shut the door on a comeback and provided the Tritons two scoreless innings of work.
 
FROM THE COACH
"Today was all about Cameron Leonard. Cam came out here today and really established his fastball early," stated Head Coach Eric Newman. "Our defense was a little shaky and we didn't make enough plays. One thing we talked about is we don't want to send our guys out playing like that. We want to send our seniors out the right way. These guys have meant a lot to our program. Cleaning up some of the base running stuff too so we're playing our best. Even though these last four games obviously have some different meaning than years past, we want to make sure we go out the right way and do it the right way all the way until the last pitch is thrown."
 
"I'm excited. I thought we're continuing to play well and keep getting better and that's what we want to try and continue to do. I thought Jackson Kritsch gave us some really good at bats in that game. The home run from Lucchetti late in the game was a huge swing for us especially as things got tight there for us in the end."
 
INTERVIEW WITH LEONARD

TRITON TIDBITS

• Paul Gozzo recorded his first stolen base of the season in the sixth inning.
• The Tritons have back-to-back series opening wins for the first time this season.
• Leonard improves his record to 5-6 on the season while Mitchell records his fifth save of the season.
• Kritsch went 3-for-4 at the plate.

UP NEXT
The Tritons play a double header against CSUN on Friday at Triton Ballpark with game one scheduled to start at 1:00 pm. Both games can be streamed through ESPN3.

About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions III and II and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.

Return To Sport… Safely
In order for UC San Diego scholar-athletes to be permitted to return to training and competition safely and within federal, state, local, and university guidelines, the athletic department implemented a number of measures designed to complement and enhance the university's highly-successful Return To Learn program. Notable actions include being physically distanced when practical, including during out-of-season training sessions; wearing masks, except when undergoing physically strenuous exercise; and maintaining proper hygiene. Athletes, coaches, and staff are testing at a higher frequency than the campus population, teams adhere to CDC, NCAA, and Big West Conference guidelines, and department officials participate in regular meetings with conference and university-affiliated physicians and the UC San Diego emergency operations staff.