May 7, 2005
Box Score
(San Diego, CA) - Freshman centerfielder
Justin Snyder hit a pair of timely homeruns and San Diego broke open a one-run game by scoring three runs in the top of the ninth to even its three-game weekend series with Gonzaga, winning 6-2 Saturday at GU's Avista Stadium.
San Diego (28-24-1; 14-12 WCC) can move into a first-place tie with Gonzaga (28-19; 13-9 WCC) in the WCC Coast Division Standings with a victory tomorrow in the series finale.
Shane Buschini (pictured) hit a two-run homer in the ninth, going 2-for-4 extending his hitting streak to 17 games.
Torero starter Justin Blaine (8-4) became just the sixth pitcher in San Diego school history to reach 100 strikeouts in a single-season, punching out four Bulldog batters in seven and two thirds innings to bring his season's total to 103.
Gonzaga senior starter Patrick Donovan (5-6) retired each of the first nine batters he faced, allowing the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead heading into the fourth inning. Donovan worked eight effective innings of six-hit baseball, but allowed two game-changing solo homeruns to Snyder to eventually be the losing pitcher of record for the Zags.
After Donovan had worked flawlessly through the USD order in the first three innings, Snyder led off the USD fourth by lifting a full count pitch over the right field wall to even the score at 1-1.
Buschni and teammate Tyler Fernandes came up with back-to-back two out hits off Donovan in the seventh inning to tie the game at 2-2 and Snyder followed with a go-ahead opposite field homerun in the eighth to give San Diego a 3-2 lead.
Blaine scattered eight hits and hit three batters, but induced three groundball double plays to work his way out of trouble before he gave-way to closer Matt Falk with one-run lead in the bottom of the eighth.
Buschini's fifth homerun of the season, a two-run shot down the right field line, highlighted a three-run Torero ninth, providing Falk with all the insurance he would need to pick up his seventh save.
Falk's seven saves and 27 relief appearances this year both rank among the best single-season pitching performances in USD school history.
