Following three losses in four games at the hands of the Cal State Dominguez Hills Toros, the UCSD baseball team has fallen to No. 7 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association, but will have the chance to move up in the standings and make a run at a playoff berth with eight of its next nine games against the two last-placed teams in the league.
The UCSD baseball team’s road woes continue, with the Tritons losing eight of their last 11 away games. The most recent defeats came at the hands of Cal State Dominguez Hills, which has won 14 of its last 17 games, including three of four against UCSD.
UCSD did not help its postseason chances with its efforts against the unranked Toros, who passed the Tritons to become No. 6 in the CCAA with their 3-1 series win.
In the first game of the series, held in Carson, Calif., on April 20, the Tritons fought valiantly to come back from a late 10-4 deficit to tie the game in the ninth inning, only to witness the Toros’ own rally in the bottom of the ninth to win 11-10.
The Tritons were down by six runs through seven innings, but a five-run rally in the eighth inning cut the Toro lead to 10-9. UCSD got the late runs on a bases-loaded, two-RBI single from junior third baseman Jonathan Erickson, a Dominguez Hills balk and a two-RBI triple by senior centerfielder Damian Fante.
The rally set up more late-inning heroics, this time a game-tying home run by sophomore designated hitter Scott Clement to lead off the top of the ninth inning. UCSD senior pitcher Ryan Leake then came in to hold off the Toros in the bottom of the ninth to send the game to extra innings.
However, Leake was unable to get the Tritons that far, allowing a leadoff single to infielder Jason Klug, who advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt one batter later. Leake got outfielder Mateo Marquez to strike out to put the Tritons within an out of extra frames, but infielder Cody Puckett’s single to left field scored Klug from second, allowing the Toros to escape with the win in the series opener.
The second game of the series on April 21 ended with another close loss for the Tritons, as they couldn’t hold on to a 3-2 lead and lost 4-3 on a two-run Toro rally in the eighth inning off of losing starting pitcher Jose Navarro, whose record dropped to 6-3.
After giving up the lead, the Tritons once again threatened to come back late in the game as freshman first baseman Matt Cantele singled to lead off the ninth inning and left the game for pinch runner Devin Incerti, who advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. However, neither pinch-hitter David Gomez or Fante could get the ball out of the infield, giving Toro closer Dustin Gober his third save of the year.
Down 0-2 in the series, the Tritons returned home to UCSD for the final two games of the series, both played on April 22, and earned a split with an 8-5 win and a 6-1 loss.
In the first game of the home doubleheader, UCSD rode the bat of Cantele, who finished a double shy of the cycle with a 3-for-5 day, including two RBIs. Gomez also had an impressive day at the plate, finishing 2-for-2 with two runs and two RBIs, both coming off a home run in the second inning. The Tritons led the whole way, but had to keep adding runs each inning to keep up with the constantly rallying Toro offense.
Leading 4-2 after four innings, the Tritons got their first one-two-three inning in the top of the fifth from freshman starting pitcher Trevor Decker, who won his fifth game of the year.
Decker, who allowed 10 hits and a walk in 5.1 innings of work, credited his offense for providing support in the Tritons’ only win of the series.
“Even though I picked up the win, I didn’t have my best stuff,” Decker said. “But I did all right, kept us in the game and gave my offense a chance to win it, which they did.
Cantele added an insurance run on a big fly to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning, bringing the UCSD lead to 5-2. The Tritons added two more runs in the sixth inning to increase its lead to five runs and the Toros responded with one run in the seventh and tacked on two more in the eighth to decrease UCSD’s lead to 8-5. But the Toros would rally no more, as senior hurler Byron Grubman came in to record the final five outs and pick up his first save of the year.
The Tritons had the chance to salvage a split in the series in the second game of the doubleheader, but three UCSD errors helped hand Dominguez Hills a 6-1 victory and a 3-1 series win.
Freshman southpaw Jon Durket, who was coming off a win in his first collegiate start against Point Loma Nazarene University on April 18, lasted only 3.1 innings in his second start, giving up five hits, a walk and four runs. Only two of Durket’s runs were earned, as Dominguez Hills took advantage of an error in the fourth inning to score three runs, two unearned, and break a 1-1 tie.
The Toros would pad their 4-1 lead with two more runs in the sixth inning off of two more UCSD errors to go up 6-1. Dominguez Hills’ senior starting pitcher Chris Borchers was masterful on the mound, picking up the complete game win, allowing only one run on three hits and three walks while striking out eight.
Decker said the Tritons have much to learn from the disappointing series.
“We always have the expectation of winning the series or getting the four game sweep,” Decker said. “But going out with one win makes us realize we need to play better baseball to make the playoffs.”
The Tritons (26-21 overall, 15-13 CCAA) will play Grand Canyon University on April 25 before finishing the rest of the season against CCAA rival teams.
A four-game series against the San Francisco State University Gators (18-22-2 overall, 8-16-1 CCAA) starts on April 28 and the Tritons will host Cal State Monterey Bay (14-30 overall, 5-22 CCAA) in the final season series starting May 5, so the Tritons will have plenty of opportunities to improve their league standing.
