LA JOLLA, Calif.—UC San Diego baseball concluded its 2024 season on Sunday, dropping a 7-5 contest to Cal Poly in Triton Ballpark. The Tritons (30-23, 17-13 Big West) scored two runs and brought the winning run to the plate in the ninth, but could not complete the Senior Day comeback. With the win, the Mustangs (33-21, 18-9 Big West) prevented the series sweep.
 
Senior Emiliano Gonzalez went 2-for-4 on the day, collecting two RBI. Brock Kleszcz celebrated Senior Day with a home run in the sixth inning. Pinch-hitting in the final inning, Kerim Orucevic also led the team on paper with two RBI. 
 
Matthew Dalquist pitched the first six innings, conceding nine hits and five earned runs. He struck out five batters and walked just one. Senior Izaak Martinez closed out the game for the second time in the series, giving up one hit, one unearned run, two walks and capping his outing with a strikeout.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED 
The Mustangs took no time getting ahead as lead-off batter homered on the opening pitch. Dalquist then settled in and retired the next three batters in order and completed a 1-2-3 inning in the second.
 
UC San Diego got its first opportunity of the day in the second, getting the first two Tritons aboard. However, three consecutive outs left both runners stranded. Cal Poly added two runs the following inning via home run to lead 3-0.
 
The Tritons got two runners on again in the fourth, but with two outs they were unable to capitalize once again.
 
Three runs came across in the fifth inning via two singles and a fielder's choice for Cal Poly to build a 6-0 lead. UC San Diego broke through in the bottom of the inning after loading the bases with two outs. Gonzalez singled up the middle to bring two runs in and make it 6-2. The Tritons loaded the bases once again after Bradlee Preap was hit by a pitch (one of four times in the contest for the senior) but a strikeout ended the rally.
 
Kleszcz led off the sixth inning with a first-pitch home run over the right field wall to make it 6-3. 
 
Martinez entered for Dalquist in the seventh and faced one batter over the minimum in the next two innings. The Tritons got two runners on with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, but came up empty once again.
 
 
Cal Poly capped off its scoring in the ninth, capitalizing on a Triton throwing error to lead 7-3. UC San Diego fought back, however, loading the bases off two walks and a hit-by-pitch in the bottom of the ninth. Orucevic capitalized with an RBI single that sent home two Tritons and brought the winning run to the plate with one out. He was then caught stealing second and a fly-out ended the season-finale comeback, 7-5.
 

Forever Tritons ??#GoTritons pic.twitter.com/FhYtoYWTKv

— UC San Diego Baseball (@UCSDbsb) May 20, 2024

TRITON TIDBITS 

• Sunday's baseball game marked the final competition for UC San Diego Athletics in its NCAA Division I reclassification period. Moving forward, all Triton teams will be eligible for NCAA and Big West post-season competition.  
• Senior Izaak Martinez finishes his Triton career with 224 strikeouts in 211.0 innings over five seasons. He has a career 2.77 ERA at UC San Diego, 2.58 in Division I competition and 1.94 in his final season. 
• Senior Brock Kleszcz cracked his fifth home run of the season. 
• Before the game, the Tritons honored 13 departing seniors: Ryan Farmer, Nic Gregson, Doyle Kane, Brock Kleszcz, Colton Lomanto, Bradlee Preap, Ryan Rissas, Luke Saunders, Noah Sudyka, and Joel Tornero, along with graduate students Emiliano Gonzalez, Izaak Martinez and Benjamin Rosengard. 
• UC San Diego moved to 9-4 in the all-time series with Cal Poly and 2-1 for the weekend.
• The Tritons' seven Big West series wins are the most achieved by the program since joining the conference four seasons ago (5 in 2021, 4 in 2022, 6 in 2023, 7 in 2024).

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.