SAN DIEGO—San Diego broke a 5-5 tie in the bottom of the 10th inning to secure the 6-5 victory over Brigham Young on Friday night at Fowler Park.
With the bases loaded and one out,
Chris Colarossi hit a high chopper to the Cougars third-baseman who threw home to make the play at the plate. BYU's catcher dropped the ball and
Connor Doyle scored the winning run for the walk-off victory for USD (21-10, 6-5 WCC).
It was a fitting end to a game that saw five lead changes before the Cougars (21-8, 7-4 WCC) tied it up 5-5 in the top of the seventh.
USD got on the board first when
Shane McGuire sent a sacrifice fly to left field to score
Caleb Ricketts in the bottom of the third. The Cougars would take the lead one inning later with a 2-RBI double but the Toreros answered, scoring two runs in the bottom of the fourth to retake the lead, 3-2.
BYU jumped in front again in the sixth on a 2-RBI single up the middle before
Chris McCready lead off the bottom of the inning with his second home run of the series.
Paul Kunst collected his second RBI of the night on a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded and USD pulled ahead 5-4.
The Cougars tied it up in the seventh with an RBI double down the left field line and the teams stayed knotted 5-5 into the bottom of the 10th before the pivotal play at the plate to clinch the series for USD.
Kunst finished the day 3-for-4 with two RBIs, while
Adam Kerner collected two hits and two runs on the night. Ricketts went 2-for-3 and added a run and an RBI for the Toreros.
Jake Miller got the start for USD, pitching six innings and allowed four runs on four hits with three walks and eight strikeouts for the Toreros.
Anthony Donatella,
Nathan Walker and
Grady Miller came on in relief of Miller with Donatella carrying the majority of the load. Collectively the bullpen gave up just one run on two hits with two walks and four strikeouts, and
Grady Miller (3-2) was credited with the win.
The Toreros will look to sweep the series with the Cougars when they face off in the finale on Saturday at 1 p.m. PT.
