LA JOLLA, Calif. – With two outs and a 3-1 deficit in the final inning of UC San Diego baseball's (10-3) Friday night matchup against Pacific (2-11), Emiliano Gonzalez and Brock Kleszcz hit back-to-back left field singles to complete an improbable 4-3 comeback. The victory marks the sixth in a row for the Tritons. 
 
Ryan Forcucci took the mound first for the Tritons, recording 10 strikeouts while giving up three runs and as many hits. Izaak Martinez took over pitching duties in the seventh inning, hitting his stride in the final inning with three strikeouts; he finished with six strikeouts while conceding a walk and two hits. 
 
Gonzalez led the way with the bats, hitting 3-for-5 with 3 RBI. Matt Halbach went 2-for-4 that included a double; he also accounted for two of the Tritons' runs.  
 
HOW IT HAPPENED 
Neither side managed to record a hit in the opening two innings, with only one Tiger getting on base with a walk.  
 
Pacific broke the drought with a double to left center in the third. The Tritons almost escaped unscathed before a triple off the fence in left field plated two Tigers. Pacific notched one more run off a dropped ball at first base to make it 3-0 heading into the bottom of the third inning. 
 
The Tritons nearly flipped the game on its head in the fifth after Gonzalez, Noah Sudyka, and Michael Crossland each hit singles to load the bases. A deep left field hit from Benjamin Rosengard was just short of the wall, however, closing out the inning scoreless.  
 
The hosts loaded the bases again the very next inning off a Halbach double, Bradlee Preap hit-by-pitch, and Doyle Kane single. Gonzalez put the Tritons on the board with a groundout to make it 3-1 heading into the seventh inning. 
 
Martinez struck out the side in the eighth and closed the door in the ninth after a Tiger reached third base, throwing his sixth strikeout to end his stint without giving up a run. With three outs separating Pacific from claiming the win, UC San Diego was gifted another loaded-base situation following a Halbach single, and back-to-back hit-by pitches on Preap and Kane.  
 
Gonzalez did not squander the opportunity, knocking a single through the left side to send two Tritons home and tie the game, 3-3.  
 
In his first plate appearance of the night, Kleszcz hit a rocket to the left field wall to complete the precipitous comeback, 4-3. 
 
TRITON TIDBITS 

• Emiliano Gonzalez's three RBI is a season high for the grad student; he now leads the team with a .413 average. 
• This is the first all-time meeting for the Tritons and Pacific. 
• UC San Diego loaded the bases four times Friday night. 
• The Tritons wore their gold jerseys with white pants and are now 3-0 in the uniform combination. 

QUOTABLE 
"It was just stay with it, stay with it, stay with it," said UC San Diego head coach Eric Newman. "We hit like seven balls over 100 miles an hour and only two of them ended up as hits...If you keep hitting it 100 on the line, sooner or later they have to fall. And so that's what we just kept talking about." 
 
"Having moments like this, where you come back from behind gives you an idea like 'Hey, we can do it.' And now we see the blueprint for it. We've had some opportunities weeks before where we were in similar positions and didn't do it. So, it's good to see our guys figure that part out." 
 
UP NEXT 
The Tritons play their second game of the three-game series against Pacific on Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ with live statistics available via UCSDTritons.com. 
 
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 II and III 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.