San Diego (22-12, 9-6 WCC) • San Diego State (10-25, 4-14 Mountain West)
Tony Gwynn Stadium (3,000) • San Diego, California
Radio • USDToreros.com | Live Statistics •  USDToreros.com
Social • Twitter.com/USDBaseball • Instagram.com/USDBaseball
SAN DIEGO — Fresh off a stirring series victory over conference foe Loyola Marymount, San Diego baseball (22-12, 9-6 WCC) will close out its home-and-home series with crosstown rival San Diego State (10-25, 4-14 Mountain West) on Monday evening, traveling to Tony Gwynn Stadium for a matchup with the Aztecs.
The midweek non-conference matchup is set to get underway at 6 p.m., and will be streamed on the radio via USDToreros.com with Torero play-by-play broadcasters Jack Cronin and Braden Surprenant on the call.
Live statistics will be available on GoAztecs.com.
LAST TIME OUT
• The Toreros took two of three from Loyola Marymount at Fowler Park over the weekend, erasing a two-game deficit in the WCC standings to pull into a tie for second place in the conference with the Lions.
• USD beat LMU by scores of 9-8 (14 innings) and 1-0 on Thursday/Friday before dropping a tough 8-1 decision in the series finale on Saturday.
GAME ONE saw San Diego rally for a seven-run comeback and a walk-off win in a contest that spanned 14 innings and two different days.
• Locked at eight runs apiece in the top of the 14th after graduate utility player RJ Teijeiro tied the game in the bottom of the ninth with an RBI single, the two teams were forced to pause their high-stakes matchup at 10:30 p.m. due to Fowler Park's curfew. Graduate left Ian Churchill was key in advancing the game to that point, tossing six no-hit, shutout innings after entering in the top of the eighth, striking out three against just two walks.
• The game resumed the following afternoon at 3:00 p.m., and after sophomore right-hander Ivran Romero (Poway High School) pitched a 1-2-3 top of the 14th, fellow sophomore Dustin Allen (center fielder) delivered the game's decisive blow with an RBI single to right field that plated sophomore utility player Angelo Peraza to push San Diego to a 9-8 win.
GAME TWO, which began roughly 30 minutes after the conclusion of Friday's first contest at 3:50 p.m., featured an old-school pitcher's duel.
• Sophomore lefty Brycen Mautz (Westview High School) traded zeros with LMU pitcher Diego Barrera all the way to the bottom of the ninth inning as both hurlers went the distance.
• For Mautz, it was the best performance of his college career thus far, a complete-game shutout that saw him scatter six hits, walk just two, and strike out eight on his way to his team-best sixth victory of the season (6-1).
• Hitless through the contest's first six frames, the Toreros finally broke through in the bottom of the seventh with a pair of singles from Sim and Ricketts, but it would take until the bottom of the ninth for the Toreros to get on the board, and after a masterful performance from their starter they would need just one run to earn a victory.
• Ricketts, who had guided Mautz through nine dominant innings behind the dish at catcher, started off the frame by ripping a double into the right field corner. Costello advanced him to third with yet another textbook sacrifice bunt before Peraza singled to right field to plate Ricketts, pushing his team to a 1-0 decision that marked its second consecutive walk-off winner.
GAME THREE saw the Toreros fall by an 8-1 margin despite jumping out to an early 1-0 lead.
• Junior catcher Caleb Ricketts got the scoring started in the bottom of the first inning with a clutch RBI double, plating sophomore infielder Kevin Sim (Torrey Pines High School) to give San Diego an early 1-0 lead.
• LMU rallied back to tie it an inning later with a sacrifice fly, then took the lead in the top of the third with an RBI single.
• The scored remained 2-1 until the top of the eighth, when Loyola Marymount added two runs with a pair of RBI doubles before stretching its lead to seven runs with a grand slam in the top of the ninth to create an 8-1 advantage that the Toreros would be unable to overcome as they dropped the game by the same score.
• Sophomore righty Jack Hyde (Grossmont High School) and redshirt sophomore righty James Sashin combined for three scoreless innings out of the bullpen across the game's fourth, fifth, and sixth innings.
• Hyde allowed just one hit, struck out two and walked none in two innings of work, then Sashin worked around a hit and a walk with a strikeout to notch a run-free sixth.
• Seven different Toreros notched a hit on the day.
ALL-TIME SERIES WITH SAN DIEGO STATE
• The Toreros are 59-76-2 against the Aztecs all-time, with the two programs' last meeting coming earlier this month, an 8-3 USD win at Fowler Park on April 12.
• The matchup, which was played before the Toreros' largest crowd of the season (1,484), saw San Diego draw 10 walks enroute to a comeback victory.
• Sophomore utility player Jack Costello got the scoring started in the bottom of the first, plating sophomore infielder Chase Meidroth with an RBI double down the left field line.
• Junior catcher Caleb Ricketts doubled the Torero lead a batter later when he came home on a passed ball, moving the score to 2-0 in favor of the home team.
• San Diego State answered back with a trio of runs in the top of the third, taking a 3-2 lead via an RBI double, an RBI fielder's choice, and an RBI single.
• Sophomore utility player Angelo Peraza (St. Augustine High School) then notched a key RBI in the bottom of the fifth in what marked his first start since March 6, tying the score at three runs apiece with a sacrifice fly to right field that plated true freshman catcher Ariel Armas (St. Augustine High School).
• USD pulled back ahead an inning later, taking a 4-3 lead on a bases-loaded walk drawn by redshirt sophomore outfielder Camden Vasquez — who had entered as a pinch-hitter — that brought in graduate utility player RJ Teijeiro before adding on later in the frame when Armas scored on a fielding error by the Aztecs' shortstop, and Vasquez came home on a wild pitch to make it 7-3 San Diego.
• Meidroth provided one final insurance run in the bottom of the eighth, plating sophomore center fielder Dustin Allen to give USD an 8-3 lead it would not relinquish.
• USD and SDSU met three times last season — once at Fowler Park and twice at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
• The Toreros last played at San Diego State on February 19 and 20, 2021, dropping both games by scores of 14-7 and 19-18 (10 innings).
MAUTZ NAMED WCC PITCHER OF THE WEEK
• After turning in the most dominant pitching performance by a Torero in recent memory last weekend, sophomore left-hander Brycen Mautz was named the WCC Pitcher of the Week, the West Coast Conference announced on Monday.
•Mautz threw a complete-game shutout against LMU on Friday, single-handedly steering USD to a crucial 1-0 win. He went the distance in the series' middle game, scattering six hits across nine scoreless innings as he worked around a pair of walks with eight strikeouts to secure his team-best sixth win of the season. The San Diego, California native (Westview High School) successfully stranded seven different baserunners on Friday before San Diego rallied for a walk-off win against Lions' starter Diego Barrera, who traded zeros with Mautz all afternoon but was unable to match his scoreless ninth.
• For the season, Mautz is 6-1 with a 3.45 ERA and a team and conference-high 86 strikeouts in 57.1 innings of work.
• Mautz is the fourth San Diego player to earn a weekly conference honor in 2022 and the team's first pitcher after Kevin Sim (March 14), Chase Meidroth (March 21), and Caleb Ricketts (March 28) were named WCC Player of the Week in back-to-back-to-back weeks last month. Mautz was also named a Collegiate Baseball Newspaper National Player of the Week on March 7.
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 22-12 record so far in 2022, the Toreros are a conference-best 99-49 (.668) in that 148-game span.
•Next best within that timeframe are Gonzaga (95-60, (.612), and Saint Mary's (92-74, .554).
