SAN DIEGO—San Diego opened up its 2019 West Coast Conference campaign with a 5-1 victory over Pepperdine on Friday evening at Fowler Park.
The Toreros (14-4, 1-0 WCC) scored two runs in the fourth and fifth innings and added one in the seventh to take down last year's WCC Champion Waves (6-7, 0-1 WCC) in their first conference game of the season.
Cody Jefferis paced the Toreros offensively, going 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI. Jefferis hit his first career home run, crushing a 1-2 pitch over the right field wall in the seventh inning to cement the victory for USD.
Caleb Ricketts got things going in the fourth with a bases-loaded RBI single and
Adam Kerner followed with a sacrifice flyout to the wall in left field to give the Toreros the lead.
Jefferis added a double in the fifth inning and scored on a
Shane McGuire RBI single to put the Toreros up 3-1.
Jeff Houghtby followed with an RBI single to score McGuire on the very next pitch. The Toreros finished the day with nine hits, no errors and six men left on base.
Chris Murphy (2-1, 2.54 ERA) got the start for San Diego on the mound. After giving up the only Pepperdine run in the first inning, Murphy pitched six solid innings, giving up three hits with four walks and six strikeouts.
Jake Miller (2-0, 0.00 ERA) came on in the seventh in relief of Murphy, pitching three shutout innings for USD. Miller gave up just three hits with one walk and one strikeout for his second save of the season.
The Toreros will return to action for game two of the series on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. PT. LHP
Anthony Donatella (1-0, 2.13 ERA) will get the start for USD against LHP Easton Lucas (1-2, 5.82 ERA) for Pepperdine.
