SAN DIEGO — San Diego baseball (26-8, 12-4 WCC) won its sixth straight West Coast Conference game on Friday evening, powering past Pepperdine (14-17, 6-7 WCC) at Fowler Park by a score of 8-3.

"To be able to get a home series with a great opponent at the spur of the moment was awesome," USD head coach Rich Hill said after the game, which had been scheduled only a day earlier after USD's series at Gonzaga was postponed. "We responded in a big way."

Graduate student Thomas Luevano got the scoring started for the Toreros in the bottom of the first, singling to left field to drive home true freshman Jack Costello and earn his WCC-leading 49th RBI of the 2021 season.

USD added on in the fourth when junior Tora Otsuka sent an RBI double to left to plate sophomore Caleb Ricketts. A batter later, sophomore Cody Jefferis sent a sacrifice fly to center to score freshman Will Worthington, and San Diego was out to a 3-0 lead.

In the sixth, Jefferis would go on to record his 26th and 27th RBIs of the season with a single right back up the middle that plated Otsuka and Worthington. The Valencia, California native led all USD hitters with three total RBIs on the evening.

Costello launched his second career college home run later in the frame, a two-run effort that pushed the score to 7-0 in favor of the Toreros before his team's final run of the night came home on a throwing error by Pepperdine.

"We had 11 hits and we barreled a lot more," said Hill regarding the USD offense. "Great effort."

Sophomore right-hander Jake Miller (5-1) started the game on the mound for San Diego and earned the win, tossing six scoreless innings while scattering four hits, walking two, and striking out eight.

"The best thing about Jake Miller's outing was the last pitch that he threw," Hill said of his starter. "He was getting up close to 100 pitches, his velocity had dropped, and he just kind of reached back with guys on base and really threw a quality pitch to strike out Ryan Johnson."

Redshirt sophomore Ryan Robinson closed out the game for USD, throwing 1.2 run-free frames with four strikeouts of his own to secure the 8-3 victory for the Toreros. On the evening as a whole, San Diego fanned 15 Pepperdine batters and walked just three.

Less than a day after his team had flown home and pivoted to a new opponent, Hill reflected on his team's resilience.

"I could see it in their eyes in the airport," the 23rd-year head coach said. "We gathered our team and told them what was gonna happen, and everybody just started clapping and high-fiving and fist pumping, like 'Yeah, we just want to play.'"

The conference series continues tomorrow night at Fowler Park. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.