SANTA CLARA, CALIF. — San Diego baseball (24-8, 10-4 WCC) scored eight runs across the final four innings of Saturday afternoon's game to earn a 9-4 victory over conference foe Santa Clara (12-22, 5-12 WCC), winning its fourth straight contest to take at least two of three from the Broncos at Stephen Schott Stadium this weekend.
Graduate student
Thomas Luevano led the way for the Toreros at the plate, going 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles, three RBIs, a run scored, and a walk. He got the scoring started in the top of the first with a double to left field to plate sophomore shortstop
Cody Jefferis, giving USD an early 1-0 lead that it would hang on to until the top of the fifth.
San Diego was able to expand its advantage in that frame, scoring on a wild pitch (
Will Worthington) and a double by junior catcher
Shane McGuire that plated Jefferis and graduate student
Paul Kunst.
In the seventh, Luevano added his second double of the game, bouncing one over the Broncos' third baseman for two RBIs before he came around to score on an RBI single back up the middle by true freshman
Jack Costello.
The Toreros added two more runs on two more doubles an inning later, with Jefferis and Kunst each contributing an extra-base hit and an RBI.
Five USD players (Kunst, Jefferis, McGuire, Luevano, and Ricketts) had multiple hits in the game, Jefferis and Luevano each notched multiple extra-base hits, and Kunst, Jefferis, McGuire, Costello, and Luevano all recorded at least one RBI.
Redshirt freshman
Conner Thurman started the game on the mound for San Diego and pitched six innings of three-run ball with 10 strikeouts, two shy of his career and season high of 12.
He was relieved by true freshman
Ivran Romero, who threw three innings while allowing just one run with six strikeouts of his own, one shy of his career and season high of seven. Romero (Poway High School) struck out four batters in a row between the bottom of the seventh and the bottom of the eighth, striking out the side via three looking strikeouts in the eighth before he notched two more in the ninth to earn his third save of 2021 and finalize USD's 9-4 win.
The series concludes tomorrow afternoon at 12 p.m. at Stephen Schott Stadium.
