“We knew coming into the season we were inexperienced in virtually all facets of the game,” assistant coach Rob Avila said in an email interview. “Our schedule did not allow for us to ease into things as we faced off against four veteran teams filled with many junior college and Division-I transfers. When you play experienced teams they will take advantage of your mistakes and that is why we lost many close games during that first stretch of the season.”
At the start of conference play, the Tritons split their first three four-game series — good, but not great results for a squad that was used to sitting at the top of their conference.
“After going 4–4 to start out in the conference, we thought we would still have a very good chance to make a run at the conference championship,” Avila said. “The guys bought in to staying the course and continued to work hard every day. Things started to click offensively and a few guys and we haven’t looked back.”
UCSD seems to have turned the corner in their home series against CSU Monterey Bay, where the Tritons went 3–1 against the then-No. 29 nationally ranked Otters. UCSD followed up by going 3–1 again at San Francisco State and at CSU Stanislaus the weekend after.
“The difference between the last five series and our first five is our resolve to practice well and play our style of baseball,” head coach Eric Newman said in an email interview. “Things have really clicked.”
Last weekend against top of the conference Sonoma State, who sat at the fringes of the national rankings, the Tritons recorded their first series sweep of 2012.
“Our mindset going into the Sonoma series was to play our style and not focus on what anybody else was doing,” Newman said. “We didn’t make a bigger deal about that series than the other teams we played just because they were in first place; we just stayed true to who we are and let that speak for itself.”
The Triton rotation was firing on all cylinders against the Seawolves. Junior starter Ryan Goodbrand pitched six innings, for his sixth straight win, in the first game of the series. While junior southpaw Richard Kilbury had a big weekend, picking up his first two wins of the season.
Against Sonoma, UCSD was in no want of offense, as the Tritons recorded 31 runs in their four games.
On Thursday, April 5, every Triton in the starting lineup scored at least one run to take the first game of the series 11–6.
UCSD won its second game by a closer 10–8 margin with the help of junior Richard Siegel’s two-run homerun. The Tritons took the second game of the day 4–1.
On Saturday, April 7, the Tritons came from behind, recording three runs in the top of the eighth inning to take a 6–4 win.
Now, the Tritons have overtaken first place in the CCAA and continue to rise in the national rankings, receiving 18 points in the weekly NCAA Collegiate Baseball poll.
The Tritons have three home-and-away CCAA series remaining, with a nonconference two game series against Grand Canyon to cap regular season play.
But with 12 games left to play and three games separating first place from third place, Avila says the coming CCAA series will be crucial for the Tritons.
“This weekend against [CSU] Dominguez Hills is the most important series of the year,” Avila said. “We constantly remind our guys to play the game one pitch at a time and take it one game at a time.”
UCSD continues its homestand with two games at Triton Ballpark this Thursday and Friday, April 12 to April 13. The Tritons will then travel to Dominguez Hills where they will complete the series the following day, Saturday, April 14.
