March 25, 2016 Box Score
MALIBU, Calif. â€" The University of San Diego baseball team picked up a 6-4 win over Pepperdine University behind another strong pitching performance from Troy Conyers, and a 3-for-3 day from Hunter Mercado-Hood Friday afternoon in a West Coast Conference game at Eddy D Field.
With the win, the Toreros improve to 14-11 overall and move to 2-3 in the WCC. With the loss, the Waves fall to 10-11 overall and move to 2-3 in the WCC.
The Toreros got on the scoreboard first, as in the top of the second inning, Hunter Mercado-Hood led off the frame with a double, and he moved to third on a Spencer Dunlap sacrifice bunt. Daniel Gardner then drove in Mercado-Hood with a groundout to the pitcher, to give USD a 1-0 lead.
The Waves answered back in the bottom of the second inning, by scoring a pair of runs on two hits. The Pepperdine runs came on solo home runs by Manny Jefferson and Chris Fornaci, to give the home team a 2-1 lead.
The Waves then tacked on another run in the bottom of the fourth, and USD took that back in the top of the fifth. Then in the top of the sixth, USD regained the lead by scoring three runs on three hits. The Toreros runs came on a Ryan Kirby 2-run single, which scored Conner Jauch, who walked, and Jeff Houghtby, who had singled. And the final run came on a Mercado-Hood RBI single, which scored Kirby, to give USD a 5-3 lead.
The Toreros never looked back, as they went on to score an insurance run in the eighth inning, and Pepperdine only managed to score one more run in the bottom of the eighth, to put the game at its final of 6-4.
Offensively for the Toreros, Mercado-Hood led the way, as he went a perfect 3-for-3 with a double and one RBI. Brhet Bewley also had a good day at the plate, as he went 2-for-4 with one RBI.
Conyers (4-2) picked up the win on the mound for the Toreros, as he allowed three runs on eight hits in 6.0 innings of work. Nathan Kutcha picked up the save, as he allowed no runs on no hits in 2.0 innings of work. Pepperdine's Garcia (3-2) was saddled with the loss for the Waves, as he allowed five runs on seven hits in 7.0 innings of work.
The Toreros will return to action on Saturday, as they look to capture their first WCC series of the season, with a 1 p.m. game at Pepperdine.
