SAN DIEGO — A late three-run homer from Jack Gurevitch and a pair of dynamic pitching performances powered San Diego baseball (1-8, 0-0 WCC) to a 6-0 shutout victory over Cal State Bakersfield (2-8, 0-0 Big West) on Friday night, earning the Toreros their first win of 2025 as they took game one of a three-game series against the Roadrunners at Fowler Park. 

USD got off to a quick start by scoring a run in each of the game's first three innings to take an early 3-0 lead, but did not score again until Gurevitch slammed his fourth home run of the season in the bottom of the eighth inning to double the lead for the Toreros. 

Cal Scolari and Austin Smith set the stage for Gurevitch's late-game blast by dominating on the mound, combining to total nine scoreless innings and 14 strikeouts while allowing only four hits and three walks.

ON THE BOARD FIRST

• Leadoff hitter Rex Watson began USD's first-inning rally by getting hit by a pitch, and made it to third base on a double from Nico Libed before scoring the first run of the game when Smith hit an RBI sacrifice fly to left field.
• San Diego scored again in the bottom of the second when Watson registered an RBI sacrifice fly to left field, which plated Cade Martinez to make it 2-0 USD.
• Jayden Lobliner launched a solo home run in the bottom of the third inning to extend the USD lead to three, hammering a 2-0 fastball over the left-field wall to notch his first longball as a Torero.  
• After neither team scored across the next four innings, Gurevitch gave the Toreros a trio of key insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth inning by booming a towering three-run shot to right-center field, allowing USD to take a 6-0 lead that it did not relinquish. 

A DYNAMIC DUO ON THE MOUND

• Scolari turned in five shutout innings in his third start of the season, scattering three hits while striking out seven and walking only two. 
• Austin Smith took over in the top of the sixth inning and closed the game out with four scoreless innings to earn the Toreros' first save of 2025, giving up just one hit while striking out seven batters of his own.

TORERO TIDBITS

• Martinez notched his first extra-base hit of the year when he doubled down the left field line in the third inning. Friday marked his second start of 2025.
• Watson was hit by a pitch two times in the series opener, moving his total hit-by-pitch number on the season to six, which ties San Francisco's Patrick Keighran for the most in the WCC as of Friday night.
• Watson reached base three times on Friday, doing so via a pair of hit by pitches and a walk.
• Friday's 6-0 win over the Roadrunners marked San Diego's first shutout victory since May 11, 2024, when they blanked San Francisco 9-0 at Benedetti Diamond. USD's last shutout at Fowler Park prior to Friday was on May 4, 2024, when it beat Santa Clara 2-0.

UP NEXT
The Toreros will continue their series with the Roadrunners tomorrow evening. First pitch at Fowler Park in game two is set for 5:05 p.m.