UC San Diego baseball (16-19, 12-6 Big West) fell 11-3 to Cal Poly (21-17, 12-6 Big West) on Friday night at Triton Ballpark. Four Triton errors and a late Mustang power surge turned a competitive game into a lopsided series-opening loss.
The Tritons struck first in the opening inning when junior first baseman Gabe Camacho launched a solo home run to right-center field, but Cal Poly quickly settled in. The Mustangs tied the game in the second against UCSD’s redshirt sophomore pitcher Steele Murdock on an RBI groundout, before taking a 2-1 lead on a wild pitch in the third.
UCSD answered immediately as junior center fielder Michael Crossland crushed a solo shot of his own to the left-center, evening the score at 2-2 in the bottom of the third. For the first three innings, the game felt like a tight Friday-night conference matchup, with each side trading runs early.
In the fourth, Cal Poly capitalized on defensive miscues to seize control against Murdock with a three-run inning despite recording only one hit. One Mustang reached on a fielder’s choice, and a throwing error by senior third baseman J.C. Allen on the play allowed two unearned runs to score. Later, another Mustang drew a bases-loaded walk to stretch the lead to 5-2. Cal Poly added a run in the fifth on an RBI single and a double, pushing the Mustangs’ advantage to four and ending Murdock’s outing.
“The game got away from us on defense,” head coach Eric Newman said to The UCSD Guardian in a postgame interview. “We made four errors. … If we just kind of play a normal game of defense, that’s probably a much closer game than what it turned out to be.”
The Tritons stranded chances in the fifth and sixth innings while Cal Poly continued to score; an unearned run in the seventh after another error, a balk, and two walks loaded the bases.
Any remaining hope of a comeback disappeared in the eighth. After a single and another UCSD throwing error extended the inning, a Mustang lined an RBI single to left-center. Two batters later, graduate outfielder Dylan Kordic hit a three-run homer to deep center field, blowing the game out at 11-2.
The Mustangs finished with 11 runs on 11 hits, while UCSD’s offense never found a sustained rhythm beyond the two early solo homers. The Tritons added one final run in the ninth when Allen reached on a Cal Poly throwing error that allowed junior infielder Anthony Potestio to score. However, the late run did little to change the trajectory of the game.
Despite the sloppy opener, Newman remained calm heading into the rest of the weekend.
“There might be a lineup adjustment or two, but not a lot,” Newman said. “We are obviously better than that. … Let’s move on to tomorrow.”
UCSD faced Cal Poly again on Saturday and Sunday, losing 5-3 in the second game in the series before ending it with a 16-15 win.
The Tritons will stay close to home next week, set to face USD on Tuesday at Fowler Park and Cunningham Field.
