SPOKANE, WA — San Diego baseball (13-14-1, 6-4 WCC) on Thursday dominated Gonzaga from start to finish, utilizing a brilliant start from sophomore lefty Austin Smith and a trio of home runs to secure a commanding and decisive 8-1 win over the Bulldogs (11-15, 7-3 WCC) at the Patterson Baseball Complex that was televised nationally on ESPNU.

The Toreros scored four in the top of the first and never looked back enroute to their fourth consecutive victory, giving Smith plenty of breathing room to set forth the best start of his college career, which saw him set career highs in both innings pitched (five) and strikeouts (nine) as he earned his second win of 2023 to move to 2-1. Conner Thurman closed the game out with 1.1 scoreless innings in what marked his 2023 debut.

EARLY AND OFTEN

• Junior utility player Kevin Sim (Torrey Pines High School) got the scoring started in the top of the first with a line-drive opposite-field RBI single, plating graduate infielder James Arakawa to make it 1-0.
• Smith — a two-way player who transferred to the Toreros from UC San Diego after attending nearby Granite Hills High School — followed with a bases-loaded two-RBI single, moving the score to 3-0.
• Costello was next with a RBI groundout, giving San Diego a 3-0 advantage after just a half inning of play.
• Sim added on in the top of the third with a massive solo home run, hammering a 2-2 fastball over the Patterson Baseball Complex's left-field wall put USD up by four, then junior centerfielder Dustin Allen followed with a solo shot of his own, making it 5-0.
• After both teams went scoreless across the fifth and sixth, junior utility player Angelo Peraza added on with a RBI single in the top of the seventh, plating sophomore shortstop Justin DeCriscio to extend the Torero lead to seven.
• Gonzaga finally got on the board in the bottom of the eighth with a solo home run, but junior infielder Will Worthington provided an instant counter in the top of the ninth with a solo shot of his own, giving USD a 8-1 lead it would not relinquish.

A CAREER NIGHT FOR SMITH

• Smith began Thursday night's game on the mound for the Toreros in what marked his second start of the season and turned in the best pitching performance of his college career thus far, throwing a career-high five shutout innings while allowing just two hits, walking four, and striking out a career-high nine.
• Redshirt sophomore righty Ryan Kysar was first out of the bullpen in relief of Smith and turned in two perfect frames.
• Freshman right-hander Peter Michael got through two-thirds of an inning in the eighth with a pair of strikeouts before Thurman took over to close things out with a trio of strikeouts across 1.1 perfect frames of his own.

TORERO TIDBITS

• Sim led USD with a 2-for-4 performance that saw him launch his 10th home run of the year, score two runs, and notch two RBIs.
• Peraza and Allen were also 2-for-4, with one run scored and one RBI apiece.
• DeCriscio, too, was 2-for-4, bolstering his team-high .360 (36-for-100) batting average as he pushed his hit streak to a team-long 13 games.
• He has now hit safely in 24 of San Diego's 28 games so far this season, including 10 multi-hit performances.
• Smith struck out the side in two different innings before Thurman struck out the side in the ninth to end the game.
• Thursday night's victory marked Brock Ungricht's 50th as San Diego's head coach.
• He is the fastest coach in program history to reach that milestone after doing so in just 85 games, moving his career record to 50-34-1.

UP NEXT
The Toreros will continue their series with the Zags tomorrow evening. First pitch at the Patterson Baseball Complex is set for 6:00 p.m.