San Diego (6-5, 0-0 WCC)  •  Grand Canyon 8-5, 3-0 WAC)
GCU Ballpark (4,000) • Phoenix, AZ
Live Stream  •  ESPN+  |  Live Statistics  •   GCULopes.com
Social  •  Twitter.com/USDBaseball  •  Instagram.com/USDBaseball

PHOENIX — San Diego baseball (6-5, 0-0 WCC) is set to embark on its first road trip of 2022 this week, traveling to Phoenix, Arizona for a three-game set against Grand Canyon University (8-5, 3-0 WAC) at GCU Ballpark.

The series will begin on Friday with a 6 p.m. first pitch, followed by another 6 p.m. start on Saturday, and a 12 p.m. game on Sunday for the weekend finale.

All three contest will be streamed live on ESPN+, and live statistics will be available via GCULopes.com.

ALL-TIME SERIES VERSUS GRAND CANYON
• The Toreros are 7-5 against the Lopes all-time, and are 5-2 all-time playing against GCU in Phoenix.

• The two programs last met in February of 2018 at Fowler Park, an 8-4 USD win.

• Prior to that matchup, San Diego had last played Grand Canyon in 1994, splitting a two-game set at Brazell Field with a 6-5 win and a 7-5 loss.

FOR STARTERS (PROBABLE)
FRIDAY: Senior righty Garrett Rennie will reprise his role as the Toreros' Friday night starter in game one, marking the fourth consecutive week in which the Los Alamitos, California native has began a series on the mound for USD.

• Rennie is 1-1 with a 2.84 ERA through 19.0 innings of work so far this season, notching 18 strikeouts along the way.

• He'll look to bounce back from a tough start last Friday that saw him surrender five earned runs across 5.2 innings, scattering six hits, walking three, and striking out a career-high seven against Dallas Baptist.

• Rennie joined USD from Long Beach City College, where he was named the 2019 South Coast Conference Pitcher/Athlete of the Year, the 2019 LBCC Pitcher of the Year, and to the 2019 First Team All-State Team.

• While at Long Beach City College in 2018 and 2019, Rennie went 14-5 with four saves, one complete game, 142.1 innings pitched, 135 strikeouts, 19 walks, a 8.54 K/9, and a 2.40 ERA.

SATURDAY: Sophomore left-hander Brycen Mautz (Westview High School) is set to start for the Toreros on Saturday, fresh off a career-high 15 strikeouts a week ago versus DBU.

• Mautz tossed 6.1 innings that day, scattering nine hits and surrendering eight earned runs as he recorded the most strikeouts in a single game by a USD pitcher since 2010, matching Kyle Blair's 15-strikeout effort on May 7, 2010 against Portland.

• The San Diego, California native was one strikeout shy of the program record in single-game strikeouts (16), which was set by both Blair and Brian Matusz in March of 2008.

• Blair had 16 Ks on March 16, 2008 versus Hawaii-Hilo, and Matusz — who pitched for eight seasons in the big leagues for Baltimore, Toronto, and Chicago — matched the feat six days later versus Harvard.

• Mautz begins Friday's action as NCAA Division I's strikeout leader with 36, and on Monday, he was one of 21 players named a Collegiate Baseball Newspaper National Player Of The Week.

SUNDAY: Redshirt sophomore Ryan Kysar will conclude the series on the mound for San Diego on Sunday, making his fourth appearance and his second start of 2022.

• Kysar is 2-1 with a 5.50 ERA through 18 innings so far this season, and has 11 strikeouts under his belt.

• Last time out, the Valencia, California native threw 1.2 scoreless frames against Dallas Baptist, working around two hits and a walk with a trio of strikeouts.

• He joined the Toreros from the University of Arizona, where he redshirted for his freshman season (2021).

SIM STEALS THE SHOW
• Sophomore infielder Kevin Sim (Torrey Pines High School) put together one of the most dominant three-game stretches in San Diego baseball history last weekend, going a remarkable 8-for-13 (.615) with three runs scored, three home runs, a stolen base, eight runs batted in, and a walk against Dallas Baptist at Fowler Park, a run that included a bases-clearing, walk-off double on Friday night.

• The San Diego, California native was 2-for-5 in the first game of the Toreros' series against the Patriots, hammering a pair of home runs and coming across to score two runs before he sent a bases-loaded double down the left field line in the bottom of the ninth to push USD to a comeback victory. His seven RBIs in the game were tied for the fourth-most in program history and are the most by a Torero in a single game since outfielder Chris McCready had seven of his own in April of 2019 versus Brigham Young.

• On Saturday, Sim had just one hit, but it was a big one, demolishing yet another home run to deep left field.

• And on Sunday, he went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles, one of which came with two outs, a full count, and the game-tying run on second base in the bottom of the ninth.

• For the season Sim is now batting a blistering .366 (15-for-41) with five home runs, two doubles, seven walks, four stolen bases, and a team-leading 17 RBIs.

CONSISTENCY FROM COSTELLO
• After a 5-for-13 (.384) performance against Dallas Baptist, sophomore utility player Jack Costello has now hit safely in 10 of the Toreros' 11 games to begin the 2022 season.

• The Simi Valley, California native notched a multi-hit performance in two of USD's three matchups against the Patriots, going 2-for-5 on Friday with a pair of singles, 1-for-3 on Saturday with a towering three-run homer and a run scored, and 2-for-5 on Sunday in the series finale with another two singles.

• Dating back to May 21, 2021, Costello had a 15-game hit streak going to begin the season before going hitless on Tuesday, and he has hit safely in 40 of the 52 games he played in so far at USD.

• Since going hitless in his first two college appearances on February 21 and 27, 2021, he's been hitless just 10 times, and 23 of his 52 college games so far have resulted in a multi-hit performance, including six multi-hit games out of 11 total contests so far in 2022.

• For the season Costello is batting .386 (17-for-44) with two doubles, two home runs, 10 RBIs, and 25 total bases. His .568 slugging percentage is second to only Sim, and his .429 on-base percentage is fifth.

PATIENCE PAYING OFF FOR MEIDROTH
• Sophomore infielder Chase Meidroth continued his hot start to the season against DBU, going 5-for-12 with two runs scored, three RBIs, a home run, and three walks.

• On Friday Meidroth was 1-for-4 with a run scored and a walk, on Saturday he was 2-for-5 with a run scored and two walks, and on Sunday he was 2-for-5 with three RBIs and a run scored after clubbing a three-run homer over the left field wall in the bottom of the seventh to bring USD within two runs of the Patriots.

• Meidroth's 12 walks so far in 2022 lead the Toreros, ahead of the next closest player (Kevin Sim) by five.

THURMAN DOMINATES TRITONS
• Redshirt sophomore Conner Thurman turned in one of the most stifling stretches so far this season by any San Diego pitcher on Tuesday versus UC San Diego, throwing three hitless innings with seven strikeouts as he earned his first save of the year.

• The Mesa, Arizona native began his outing with two perfect frames before a UCSD runner reached in the ninth on an error, a stretch that at one point featured six consecutive strikeouts.

• For the season Thurman is 1-0 with a 1.59 ERA, and has 11 strikeouts to his credit thus far in 2022.

ROMERO ROLLS THROUGH UCSD LINEUP
• Sophomore Ivran Romero (Poway High School) also did his part out of the bullpen on Tuesday night, throwing 4.1 scoreless frames with five strikeouts as he scattered two hits.

• The San Diego, California native took over for true freshman starter Morgan Lunceford in the top of the second with runners on first and second, stranding both Tritons when he ended a nine-pitch at-bat with a strikeout to conclude the frame.

COLLERAN SHINES OUT OF THE 'PEN
• Sophomore Cole Colleran (Canyon Crest High School) set a new career-high with 2.1 innings pitched to conclude USD's matchup against Dallas Baptist on Sunday, allowing a hit and a walk but no runs.

• Colleran is 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA after 3.2 total innings in 2022.

BEST IN THE WEST (COAST CONFERENCE)
• From the beginning of the 2019 season until now, no team in the West Coast Conference has had a better record than San Diego baseball. Combining their 2019 record (32-21), their abbreviated 2020 totals (12-4), their 33-12 mark in 2021, and their 6-5 record so far in 2022, the Toreros are a conference-best 83-42 (.665) in that 125-game span.

•Next best within that timeframe are Gonzaga (81-53, .604, and Saint Mary's (81-59, .578).