April 25, 2004

Box Score

(San Diego, CA)- San Diego crushed visiting Portland 13-3 Sunday to sweep a three-game West Coast Conference series and improve to 25-19 on the season. The Toreros have won five straight games and 11 of their last 13. San Diego (25-19, 12-9) benefited from seven dominating innings from sophomore pitcher Justin Blaine (pictured), who recorded six K's and induced 11 groundball outs. USD junior Randy Curtis went 4-for-4 with a homerun, his second of the series.

Portland (7-32, 3-15) is swept for the fourth time this season in league play. The Toreros, who led throughout the series, scored early and often Sunday, putting up five first inning runs off Pilot starter Kyle Corra (0-4). Tom Caple, Joey Prast and Jose Ortega each doubled off Corra in the first inning and Jordan Abruzzo added a two-RBI single.

Ortega increased his hitting streak to 15 games and before being removed in the game's later stages managed to increase his season's average to .359, going 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI's.

The hit parade exhausted five Portland pitchers, included five extra-base knocks and a total of 19 San Diego hits. Corra was pulled in the second inning after back-to-back hits by Freddy Sandoval and Josh Hansen extended USD's advantage to 6-0. Sandoval and Hansen were two of seven USD batters that enjoyed a multi-hit game Sunday.

Blaine (4-2) worked seven complete innings, allowed one run and struck out six. Blaine owns a 3.00 ERA in league play (best among any USD starter). James Wickman pitched the eighth and Brett Gillespie worked the ninth. As a staff San Diego has a collective ERA of 4.68 this season.