March 14, 2004
The USD baseball team (9-12) capped off a solid weekend at Petco Park with this afternoon's 7-3 win over 8th-ranked Long Beach State in their third game in three days in the Aztec Invitational. Keoni Ruth's solo homer in the bottom of the 4th gave USD a 4-3 lead and the Toreros added 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th for the upset. Sophomore LHP Justin Blaine pitched six strong innings, scattering 6 hits and giving up 3 runs, to earn the victory and improve his mark to 2-2. Freshman Josh Butler gave up just 1 hit over the final three innings to close the door on the Dirtbags.
8th-ranked Long Beach State scored a 1 in the first when starting pitcher Jason Vargas (2-4) helped his own cause with an RBI single to right. The Toreros were held in check by Vargas through the first two innings, but San Diego scored 3 runs in the bottom of the third. Senior Josh Hansen tallied the key hit in the inning with a 2-run double that scored Tom Caple and Jose Ortega.
LBSU answered right back in the top of the 4th with two runs to knot the score at 3-all. John Bowker knocked an RBI single and Travis Udvarhelyi added an RBI sacrifice fly. In the bottom of the 4th is when Ruth delivered his leadoff homer to left that gave USD the 4-3 lead, a lead they would not surrender. The key hit in the bottom of the 8th for the Toreros was delivered by Jose Ortega, a 2-RBI double to right field that flew over a drawn-in Josh Buhagiar.
For the game Ruth finished 2-for-4 at the plate with one run scored and 1 RBI. Randy Curtis also chipped in with 2 hits in 3 at-bats with 1 run scored. Trevor Pike and Jose Ortega each crossed the plate for the Toreros.
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The Toreros have a busy week ahead as they host Navy on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by three straight home WCC contests with LMU (Fri-Sun).
