TOREROS SWEEP, NOW READY FOR FIRST-PLACE SHOWDOWN
USD completed a threegame sweep at Santa Clara on Sunday to set up a showdown with Gonzaga this weekend for first place in the West Coast Conference.
USD (24-9, 11-4 WCC) trails Gonzaga (26-13, 14-4) by 11⁄2 games in conference play with four weeks remaining in the regular season. Portland (19-20, 11-7), USF (16-9, 11-7) and Saint Mary’s (21-16, 10-8) are the only other teams with a winning conference record.
With no conference tournament this season due to coronavirus cutbacks, the regular season winner will receive the WCC’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
The Toreros used a sixrun fifth inning — getting a three-run double from Paul Kunst and a three-run homer from Thomas Luevano — for Sunday’s 6-4 win over the Broncos (12-23, 5-13). Redshirt freshman righthander Carter Rustad allowed two runs and struck out eight batters over four innings before turning things over to the USD bullpen, which allowed four hits over the last five innings.
USD won the first two games 2-1 and 9-4. The Toreros offense almost waited too long in the opener. USD trailed 1-0 through eight innings before plating a pair of unearned runs in the ninth for the one-run win. All three runs in the game were unearned. USD starter Jake Miller allowed an unearned run in the fourth after an errant pickoff throw to first base. Miller allowed just two hits over 52⁄3 innings. Three Toreros relievers gave up just three hits the rest of the way.
Luevano drove in a gamehigh three runs in the second win. He leads the Toreros — and the WCC — with 48 RBIs.
This week: Friday-Sunday at Gonzaga, 6 p.m./6 p.m./noon.
Aztecs update
San Diego State (22-9) swept its three-game home series against Dixie State (11-26) during its weekend off from Mountain West play. Sunday’s 9-1 win did not have the tension evident in one-run wins — 8-7 and 5-4 in 10 innings — in Saturday’s doubleheader.
The Aztecs actually needed to rally for the extrainning win. Redshirt freshman second baseman Caden Miller had a two-run triple in the seventh, then scored to make it 4-4. Miller scored the winning run in the 10th on teammate Wyatt
Hendrie’s single.
Right-hander Ricky Tibbett (3-1), a redshirt freshman from Eastlake High, tossed five shutout innings in Sunday’s win, allowing five hits with six strikeouts.
SDSU sophomore outfielder Jaden Fein was 3for-11 in the series and is now batting .458.
The Aztecs (14-7 MW) maintained their threegame lead in the conference with second-place UNLV (14-7, 9-6) idle for the second straight week because of COVID-19 issues within the Rebels program. Nevada (12-16, 9-9) moved up to third place after taking two of three games at Air Force.
The regular season conference winner will get the MW’s automatic NCAA Tournament berth.
This week: Friday-Saturday at Nevada, 1 p.m. (DH)/1 p.m.
Tritons update
UC San Diego (10-22, 7-13 Big West) got its best pitching in five weekends of conference play, but it still didn’t prevent UCSD from losing three of four games to Cal State Bakersfield (14-9, 11-5).
After losing the series opener 9-7, the Tritons pitching staff limited Bakersfield to six runs over the final three games. Sunday’s 2-1 loss had to be the most frustrating for UCSD, which allowed a pair of unearned runs in the sixth inning. The Tritons’ offense managed only four hits in the game, just one of them after the third inning.
UCSD sophomore righthander Aren Alvarez (1-4) tossed 62⁄3 innings without allowing an earned run in Saturday’s 7-1 win. The weekend hitting highlight came in the opener when UCSD catcher Aaron Kim drove in five runs on two homers, including a first-inning grand slam.
This week: Friday-Sunday at UC Riverside, 6 p.m./ noon (DH)/1 p.m.
Sea Lions update
Point Loma Nazarene (919, 8-15 PacWest) won just one game in its four-game series against division-leading Azusa Pacific (24-8, 17-6). PLNU catcher Easton Waterman’s walk-off home run for a 4-3 win in the second game of Friday’s doubleheader was required to avoid a sweep. The Sea Lions’ pitching couldn’t otherwise contain Azusa, allowing a total of 29 runs in the three losses. PLNU has this week off before closing out the season next weekend with Fresno Pacific. Off.