SAN DIEGO — San Diego baseball (22-8, 8-4 WCC) earned its third West Coast Conference series win of the 2021 season on Sunday afternoon, beating San Francisco (14-18, 9-6 WCC) by a score of 8-1 at Fowler Park to take two games out of three from the Dons.

"That's a great series win against a very talented San Francisco team," USD head coach Rich Hill said after the game. "To be punched in the face like that on Friday and respond with high energy on both days, great pitching performances on both days, was just awesome."

The Toreros jumped out to an early lead for the second game in a row, plating a run in the bottom of the first when graduate student Thomas Luevano doubled to drive in his conference-leading 42nd run of the year. San Diego scored added on in the bottom half of the fifth with two sacrifice flies from graduate student Paul Kunst and freshman Will Worthington, marking the team's 22nd and 23rd sacrifice flies of 2021 — a category in which USD ranked third nationally heading into this weekend's action.

In the top of the seventh, Worthington launched his first college home run (solo) to right field, to move the score to 4-1, then a sacrifice fly from true freshman Kevin Sim (the team's 24th of the year), a bases-loaded walk from Kunst, and a two-RBI single from sophomore shortstop Cody Jefferis made it an 8-1 game.

"Situational hitting, clutch hitting, was awesome," Hill said of the Toreros' production at the plate. "Will Worthington stepped up when he got his opportunity…took some great at-bats. I'm happy for a guy like Will. He busts his butt in practice all the time waiting for his opportunity, and today he really shined."

Three USD players (Worthington, Jefferis, and Kunst) notched two RBIs in the game, while sophomore Caleb Ricketts led the offense with two hits (a double and a single) on the afternoon.

San Diego's strong performance at the dish was bolstered by a flawless day on defense and a dominant afternoon on the mound. The Toreros turned two key double plays to escape from jams, aiding the USD pitching staff in its eight total shutout innings of work on Sunday. Worthington made a rangy play at second to turn the first one with runners at first and second and one out in the fourth, then redshirt sophomore reliever Ryan Robinson deftly fielded a comebacker to set a 1-6-3 double play into motion with runners at the corners to end the visitors' half of the sixth.

"I thought it was spectacular the last two days," the head coach said regarding his team's defense. "Cody Jefferis is flying all over the field looking like Tatis Jr, I thought Ryan Robinson was great in inducing that weak-contact ground ball back to him. All around, when you get a goose egg in the error column in college baseball, that's a good day."

Redshirt sophomore Conner Thurman started the game on the mound for the Toreros, throwing five innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts in his sixth start of the season to earn the win and move to 4-2. He was relieved by Robinson, who tossed two scoreless frames with a strikeout before freshman Jack Hyde closed the game out with two run-free frames of his own to secure San Diego's 8-1 victory and earn his first save of 2021.

"I thought Conner was great," Hill said of his starting pitcher on Sunday. "He was facing a real tough lineup with six left-handed hitters in there, and I thought he was awesome."

USD is back in action on April 23 with game one of a three-game WCC series at Santa Clara, the first of six straight road contests for San Diego. First pitch at Stephen Schott Baseball Stadium is set for 3 p.m.