March 28, 2017 Box Score
SAN DIEGO, Calif. â€" The No. 23 USD baseball team (16-6) cruised to a 10-2 win over UC Riverside (11-9) Tuesday evening at Fowler Park. Led by Hunter Mercado-Hood and Jay Schuyler, the Toreros scored ten unanswered runs to move to ten games over .500.
The Highlanders took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second on a pair of RBI singles from Colby Schultz and AJ Sawyer.
The Toreros took advantage of Highlander starting pitcher Kevin West's wildness to tie the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the third. Colton Waltner and Hunter Mercado-Hood drew consecutive walks and then pulled off a double steal. Riley Adams brought Waltner home with a sacrifice fly to center and then Jay Schuyler knocked Mercado-Hood home with a RBI single.
Hunter Mercado-Hood led off the fifth inning with a solo home run down the right field line, his fourth home run and seventh extra base-hit in the last four games. Later in the inning, Roman Garcia scored on a wild pitch, bringing the score to 4-2 USD.
The Toreros put the game out of reach in the bottom of the sixth inning with four more runs. With runners on first and second, Mercado-Hood roped a RBI single off the right field wall. Two batters later, Roman Garcia had a RBI groundout, which was followed by a Schuyler two-RBI single. Schuyler finished the game 4-for-5 with three RBI.
USD added two more runs in the seventh inning. One on a wild pitch and another on a Mercado-Hood groundout.
The Toreros have scored 42 runs in their past four games.
Louis Crow and Jonathan Teaney combined to pitch six scoreless innings of relief and got the win and the save respectively.
The Toreros host San Francisco this weekend for their third WCC series of the year. First game of the series is Friday at 6:00 p.m.
