San Diego (11-3, 0-0 WCC)  •  Saint Mary's (10-7, 0-0 WCC)
Louis Guisto Field (1,500) •  Moraga, CA
Live Stream  •  WCC Network |  Live Statistics  • SMCGaels.com
Social  •  Twitter.com/USDBaseball  •  Instagram.com/USDBaseball

MORAGA, CALIF. — San Diego baseball (11-3, 0-0 WCC) begins West Coast Conference play this weekend at Saint Mary's (10-7, 0-0 WCC), traveling beyond the San Diego area for a game for the first time in 2021.

The Toreros are set to take on the Gaels for a three-game series beginning on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. Saturday's contest will start at 1 p.m., followed by the weekend finale at 12 p.m. on Sunday.

All three games will be streamed on the WCC Network, and live statistics will be available on SMCGaels.com.

ALL-TIME SERIES VERSUS SAINT MARY'S
• San Diego is 84-54-1 all-time against the Gaels, with the two program's most recent meeting coming on April 28, 2019, an 8-5 USD win in Moraga.

• The Toreros are 3-7 in their last 10 matchups overall versus SMC (3/20/2016 - 4/28/2019), but are an even 5-5 in their last 10 contests at Louis Guisto Field (5/5/2013 - 4/28/2019).

LAST TIME OUT
• USD dominated a four-game series for the second week in a row last weekend at Fowler Park, sweeping UC Riverside in emphatic fashion by scores of 16-4, 7-0, 9-0, and 5-4 (10). The Toreros outscored the Highlanders by a 37-8 margin across the four-game set, and held UCR scoreless for 18 straight innings across a Saturday doubleheader.

• San Diego has won eight consecutive games coming into conference play, has prevailed in 11 of their last 12 contests, and has earned four-game sweeps in back-to-back weeks.

FOR STARTERS
• USD head coach Rich Hill will call on sophomore righty Jake Miller (3-1, 3.79 ERA) to open a series for the fourth consecutive week, followed by redshirt freshman righty Conner Thurman (2-0, 1.62 ERA) on Saturday, and freshman left-hander Brycen Mautz (2-0, 5.79 ERA) in the series finale on Sunday.

THURMAN NAMED WCC PITCHER OF THE WEEK
• Conner Thurman earned WCC Pitcher of the Week honors on Tuesday after turning in San Diego baseball's most dominant pitching performance of the year thus far last Saturday (March 13), throwing seven scoreless innings with 12 strikeouts against UC Riverside in game one of USD's doubleheader.

• In what marked his first college start, Thurman allowed just two hits and walked only one (an intentional walk), recording the longest outing by any USD pitcher so far this season, as well as the most strikeouts in a game by a Torero so far in 2021.

MAUTZ DAZZLES
• Freshman left-hander Brycen Mautz (Westview High School) nearly matched Thurman's dominance in game two of last Saturday's doubleheader against UC Riverside, fanning the first seven batters he faced enroute to five no-hit, walk-free innings and nine total strikeouts.

J. MILLER STAYS STEADY
• Sophomore righty Jake Miller set forth a strong outing for the third week in a row last Friday against UCR, matching a career high of 10 strikeout against only one walk and just two runs allowed (one earned) in six brilliant frames.

REMARKABLE START BY ROMERO
• True freshman Ivran Romero (Poway High School) has now thrown 14 consecutive scoreless innings to begin his college career after putting up four dominant frames against UC Riverside in game two of the doubleheader.

• Between five appearances versus San Diego State, Cal State Fullerton, UCSD, and the Highlanders, the 5-10 righty has allowed eight hits, has struck out 11, and has issued only two walks.

• Four of his five outings (SDSU, 2/21, CSUF, 2/28, UCSD, 3/5, UCR, 3/13) have been for more than three innings, and nearly all of them have come in high-leverage situations.

• Romero is one of just 22 qualified NCAA pitchers who have yet to allow a run in 2021.

LUEVANO LIGHTS IT UP (AGAIN)
• Graduate student Thomas Luevano came up big for the Toreros in their four-game sweep of UC Riverside this past weekend, going 5-13 (.384) with eight RBIs, three home runs, three walks, and five runs scored in total against the Highlanders.

• Luevano's most productive game at the plate came in game one of the series on Friday evening when he went 3-4 with two home runs (one to left field and one to right field), five RBIs, three runs scored, and a walk in USD's 16-4 win over UCR.

• The infielder, who is a native of Santa Clarita, California, now leads both the Toreros and the WCC with six home runs, 24 RBIs, and 40 total bases so far this season.

COSTELLO CONTINUES TO IMPRESS
• True freshman utility player Jack Costello has put together a strong start to his first college campaign, batting .405 (15-37) in 11 games so far in 2021.

• The Simi Valley, California native owns the Toreros' longest active hit streak (eight games), which has included five consecutive games with multiple hits and six overall multi-hit contests.

KUNST IS CLUTCH
• Graduate student Paul Kunst was crucial in the Toreros' late-game comeback last Sunday, cutting the UCR advantage to just one run in the bottom of the seventh with an RBI single before he tied the game at four runs apiece in the bottom of the ninth with a sacrifice fly to right field.

• Kunst, who was 4-9 as a whole in the series with four RBIs and two runs scored, also made a smooth sliding catch in center field in the top of the third that robbed UC Riverside of a hit.

MCGUIRE KEEPS MASHING
• Junior catcher/first baseman Shane McGuire enjoyed a productive series last weekend, going 6-14 (.428) with six RBIs, five runs scored, three doubles, and a home run in the four-game set. The Kent, Washington native leads the Toreros with 24 runs scored.

JEFFERIS STAYS HOT
• Sophomore Cody Jefferis has started every game at shortstop for the Toreros, and leads the team in batting average (.414), hits (24), and doubles (eight).

TORERO BATS LEAD THE WAY
• San Diego's 136 runs scored so far in 2021 leads the WCC by a 25-run margin, and the team's offense as a whole has topped the charts in several categories within the conference.

Those categories include:
• Hits (159)
• Doubles (42)
• RBIs (126)
• Batting average (.325)
• On-base percentage (.428)
• Slugging percentage (.521)

Only Pepperdine (17) has hit more home runs as a team than the Toreros (16).

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE
• USD's hot start at the plate has also propelled the team to the top 20 of the national leaderboards in several categories.

Those categories include:
• Batting average (.325), 7th in the NCAA
• Total hits (159), 18th in the NCAA
• On Base Percentage (.428), 11th in the NCAA
• Slugging Percentage (.521), 11th in the NCAA
• Runs scored (136), 11th in the NCAA
• Doubles (42), 2nd in the NCAA
• Doubles per game (3.00) 3rd in the NCAA
• Hit by Pitch (36), 3rd in the NCAA
• Sacrifice Flies (13), T-1st in the NCAA with Southeastern Louisiana

BEST IN THE (BIG) WEST (COAST CONFERENCE)
• The Toreros' series with UC Riverside last weekend concluded a streak of 11 consecutive games against opponents from the Big West conference (Cal State Fullerton, UC San Diego), a span that USD finished 10-1.

• Additionally, from the beginning of the 2019 season until now, no team in the West Coast Conference has had a better record than San Diego baseball. Combining their 2019 record (32-21), their abbreviated 2020 totals (12-4), and their 11-3 mark so far this year, the Toreros are a conference-best 55-28 (.662) in that 83-game span.

• Next best within that timeframe are Saint Mary's (52-37, .584), and BYU (46-37, .584).