SAN DIEGO — San Diego baseball (31-10, 17-6 WCC) earned a gritty win on Friday night at Fowler Park, beating West Coast Conference foe Portland (23-26, 13-13 WCC) by a 4-3 margin behind a clutch night at the plate from graduate student Thomas Luevano and a dominant outing in relief from redshirt freshman Conner Thurman. The win marks USD's 22nd home victory of the 2021 season, eclipsing the 2017 team's mark of 21 for the most in a single season since Fowler Park opened in 2013.

The Toreros fell behind early and trailed until the game's fifth frame, when graduate student Paul Kunst singled and sophomore Cody Jefferis and junior Shane McGuire walked to load the bases for Luevano, who leads the WCC in runs batted in. The Santa Clarita, California native promptly tied the game by hammering a bases-clearing triple deep into the right-center field gap, erasing the Pilots' three-run advantage with one swing of the bat by earning his 57th, 58th, and 59th RBIs of 2021. A batter later, Luevano came around to score as sophomore Caleb Ricketts reached on an error by Portland first baseman Sam Brown, and USD had a 4-3 lead that it would not relinquish.

"(Thomas Luevano's performance) speaks for itself," USD head coach Rich Hill said after the game with a chuckle. "That's three more RBIs tonight, and we're only playing a 45-game regular season. It would be fun to see what he can do in a 56-game season and playoffs."

Freshman Carter Rustad started the game on the mound for the Toreros, surrendering two earned runs in 3.2 innings of work. He was relieved by fellow freshman Lucas Braun, who notched a key strikeout with the bases loaded to end the top of the fourth and extinguish the Pilots' scoring threat without incident. Braun was followed by senior Grady Miller, who threw an inning while allowing a run on three hits.

"Overlooked (from this game) will be Lucas Braun's strikeout," said Hill. "Grady Miller came in and I thought did a really good job, and Carter battled for the first couple."

The Toreros' evening on the mound was headlined, however, by a commanding effort out of the bullpen from Conner Thurman. The right-hander threw four scoreless frames to conclude the game, striking out five while walking only one and allowing just two hits.

"The story of the game is Conner Thurman," the 23rd-year head coach said of the redshirt freshman. "Coming in and just controlling the tempo of the game, stud performance. It's just sinker, slider, extremely competitive bulldog on the mound. When he's doing that, it's extremely tough on the hitter."

The Toreros will look for their sixth sweep of the season in the series finale tomorrow evening. Senior night festivities are set to get underway at 5:30, and first pitch at Fowler Park is set for 6 p.m.