Following an 11-10 win on April 24 and a 9-4 win on April 25, UC San Diego baseball (19-22, 14-8 Big West) closed out a three-game series against UC Irvine (20-23, 10-12 Big West) last Sunday with a 9-7 loss at Triton Ballpark. Despite a two-run advantage heading into the eighth, the Tritons gave up five runs in the final two innings to blow their lead and miss out on a sweep of the Anteaters.
After a quick, scoreless first inning for UCI, the Tritons jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after senior third baseman J.C. Allen and sophomore catcher Trevian Martinez both singled to score one run each. Despite a strong start, the Tritons’ bats stalled as they failed to score in each of the next four innings.
UCI, on the other hand, started to heat up in the third inning. The Anteaters managed four straight singles against graduate student pitcher Nic Gregson, scoring a run and keeping the bases loaded with no outs. With UCI poised to cash in its runners, the Triton defense stepped up. Allen fielded a ground ball and threw it home, getting the runner out and saving a run. Gregson forced a popup and a strikeout to escape the third-inning jam and maintain the Tritons’ 2-1 lead.
Unfortunately, though, the Tritons found themselves in the same situation in the fourth inning. With the bases loaded and one out, an Anteater hit a double on an 0-2 count, scoring two runs. Soon after, a sacrifice fly to left field extended UCI’s lead to 4-2.
UCSD’s offense delivered in the sixth inning, exploding for four runs. The surge began with junior first baseman Gabe Camacho’s 13th home run of the season — tied for the second-most home runs in the Big West this year. Then, with one on and no outs, senior left fielder Alex Leopard hit his fifth home run of the season to put the Tritons up 5-4. A ground ball off the bat of redshirt junior second baseman Ryson Ujimori scored another run for UCSD, which took a 6-4 lead after six innings.
With only six outs between UCSD and a series sweep, UCI tacked on another run in the eighth to reduce the Triton lead to one run. The top of the ninth was the beginning of the end for UCSD. UCI’s first base runner advanced to second on a controversial balk called on senior pitcher Julian Cazares. Cazares then gave up a game-tying single before freshman pitcher Quincey Brown allowed a double and an inside-the-park home run, extending UCI’s lead to three in a swift reversal of UCSD’s early-game momentum. A stunned Triton team only managed one run — a home run by junior center fielder Michael Crossland — in the ninth inning. UCSD capped off the weekend with the 9-7 loss after a disastrous top of the ninth.
Fortunately, the Tritons quickly washed away the taste of this game’s defeat with a 10-0 combined no-hitter win against Loyola Marymount on Tuesday. UCSD remains second in the Big West standings. The Tritons headed to Long Beach this weekend to face the Dirtbags in a three-game series in hopes of catching up to first-place Cal Poly and distancing itself from third-place UC Santa Barbara. UCSD dropped the first game 3-1 but hope to turn things around in its Saturday and Sunday games. The Tritons will return home on Tuesday for a crosstown rivalry game against San Diego State.
