Sarah He
UC San Diego baseball (25-23, 14-13 Big West) hosted the UC Davis Aggies (24-26, 11-15 Big West) on Friday night, May 9, at Triton Ballpark for the first of a three-game series. Despite overcoming a 6-3 deficit, the Tritons ultimately lost the game in the ninth, 9-8.
The Tritons entered Friday night off a thrilling series against No. 8 UC Irvine where they won the first game, 19-4. They shut out Irvine in the second, winning the series overall, despite suffering an 8-4 loss in the final game. The team hoped to continue its momentum at home against the Aggies, who had just lost 10-3 to the University of San Francisco in their previous game.
The Aggie offense set the tone early. Redshirt sophomore right-hander Matthew Dalquist gave up a leadoff single on the first pitch of the top of the first inning, but Davis’ hitter was thrown out at second base by sophomore shortstop Anthony Potestio. Though the Aggies eventually put runners on second and third, they did not score until the bottom of the first, when sophomore outfielder Michael Crossland smashed a home run to left field — his 14th of the season.
The second and third innings yielded no runs or hits for either team. The top of the fourth inning proved embarrassing for the Tritons, with an Aggie hitter stealing second base and then scoring on a fumbled single up the middle. To add insult to injury, the Aggies then scored on a throwing error, putting them up one over the Tritons.
However, UCSD came out swinging in the bottom of the fourth. Redshirt senior catcher Colton Lomanto homered to left field, giving sophomore first baseman Gabe Camacho a score from first and allowing the Tritons two runs.
The top of the fifth was dramatic; Davis’ leadoff hitter tripled to open the play. The Aggies scored from third, with graduate student catcher Emiliano Gonzalez missing him by mere milliseconds. The Aggies runner dove to home, scraping his hand on the dirt in his successful effort to avoid being tagged by Gonzalez. He left the field with blood pouring down his hand, drawing morbid excitement from the crowd and pausing the game momentarily. The Aggies then scored twice more on a homer to right field, extending Davis’ lead to 6-3.
The Tritons hoped to stem the Aggies momentum and swapped pitchers; sophomore left-hander Spencer Seid took over the mound from Dalquist.
Seid struck Davis’ three batters out in the top of the sixth, proving that putting him in was the right decision. In the bottom of the inning, the Tritons scored two runs off a homer by junior first baseman J.C. Allen, bringing the score to 6-5.
The Aggies scored from second in the top of the seventh, but the Tritons were not deterred. In the eighth, Crossland scored from third, followed by Lomanto’s second homer of the night, evening the score with the Aggies. The game went into the ninth inning, tied at 6-6.
The Tritons replaced Seid with senior left-hander Sam Hasegawa in the top of the ninth, but as the Aggies advanced hitters to second and third base on passed balls, the Tritons switched pitchers again, bringing in sophomore right-hander Devon King. King gave up two runs in the ninth.
The Tritons were unable to retake the lead. Crossland scored on a balk, and an intentional walk by Allen loaded the bases, drawing outrage from Davis supporters in the stands. The team had a final chance to tie the Aggies and force the game into an extra inning, but UCSD failed to plate the tying run. Thacker flew out to first, and the game ended 9-8 in favor of the Aggies.
Despite the loss, UCSD head coach Eric Newman has hope for the rest of the series: “We have momentum from this game coming into tomorrow. … We’ll come out and expect them to play just as hard as they did today, and match them.”
The Tritons hope to make it to the Big West Conference Tournament, where the top five teams of the conference will have the opportunity to qualify for NCAA Regionals. As the regular season comes to a close, each game counts.
“We’ve got some work to do still, we’ve got to take care of business,” Newman said. “Our goal is to get to the conference tournament … and get ourselves in a position to try and win that thing.”
On Saturday, May 10, the Tritons dropped Game 2 of the series, losing 10-9. Lomanto had three runs in the losing effort.
The Tritons avoided the sweep on Sunday, May 11, beating the Aggies 23-0. The gripping Senior Day win was the largest shutout win in program history.
The Tritons face off against Hawai’i for a three-game series starting next Thursday, May 15, which will be their final series of the regular season.