SPOKANE, WASH. — San Diego baseball (32-12, 18-8 WCC) answered back with a win in game two of its final regular-season series of 2021 at conference rival Gonzaga (33-16, 20-6 WCC), taking down the No. 14 Bulldogs by a 9-0 margin at the Patterson Baseball complex behind a dominant, complete-game, one-hit shutout from freshman Carter Rustad and an explosive team effort at the plate.

Rustad (5-1) retired the first seven Gonzaga batters he faced in a row before issuing his lone walk of the evening to Jack Machtlof in the bottom of the third. After Ryan Sullivan singled for the Zags' solitary hit of Friday night's game, Rustad resumed his dominance, setting down the next 19 Bulldog batters in order as he cruised into the ninth inning. One more baserunner would reach after Brett Harris was hit by a pitch, but it would be of no consequence, as the 6-foot-5 righty quickly bounced back to earn the last out of the contest and make the Toreros' most dominant outing of 2021 official as he pitched his team to an 9-0 victory. His final line: 9 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 5 K, and the win, marking the first complete game for USD since now-sophomore Jake Miller's no-hitter on February 28, 2020.

Sophomore Cody Jefferis got the scoring started for the Toreros with a sacrifice fly in the top of the third, bringing home graduate student Paul Kunst before both sophomore Caleb Ricketts and true freshman Jack Costello scored on a passed ball and a wild pitch an inning later to give San Diego an early 3-0 advantage.

Junior catcher Shane McGuire and graduate student Thomas Luevano teamed up to add a pair of runs to the USD lead in the top of the fifth, with McGuire lacing a single to right field to plate Jefferis ahead of Luevano's conference-best 60th RBI of 2021, which came in the form of a sacrifice fly to center field and drove in sophomore Max Jung-Goldberg.

Costello then kept the line moving by sending an RBI single right back of the middle, scoring McGuire to make it a 6-0 game.

True freshman Kevin Sim put an exclamation point on the Toreros' offensive outburst in the top of the sixth with his second homer of the season (a solo shot to left field), then Costello chipped in to notch his 16th multi-hit performance of the season an inning later, recording his second and third RBIs of the evening with a double to left field that brought home Luevano and McGuire and created a 9-0 San Diego advantage that it would not relinquish.

The series concludes tomorrow afternoon in what marks both teams' regular-season finale. First pitch at the Patterson Baseball Complex is set for 12 p.m.