April 8, 2008
RIVERSIDE, Calif. - A solid pitching performance from Ricardo Pecina along with 17 Toreros hits lifted the 13th-ranked University of San Diego baseball team to a 11-4 win over UC Riverside Tuesday evening in a non-conference game at the Riverside Sports Complex.
With the win, the Toreros improve to 23-11 overall, have won four consecutive games and snap a four-game losing skid to the Highlanders, dating back to the 2006 season. With the loss, the Highlanders fall to 9-17 overall.
Pecina (2-2) had a solid outing for the Toreros as he allowed three runs, while scattering nine hits, and striking out seven in 6.1 innings of work. After surrendering two runs and four straight hits in the second inning, he settled down and retired 10 of his next 11 batters. Rob Waite (1-3) was saddled with the loss for the Highlanders as he allowed four runs, three earned, on six hits in 4.0 innings of work.
The Toreros got on the scoreboard first as in the top of the third inning USD scored one run on two hits. Kevin Muno got things rolling when he reached on a fielder's choice and moved to third on a Josh Romanski single to left field. James Meador then drove in Muno with a single to the shortstop to give USD a 1-0 advantage.
Riverside answered back with two runs on four hits in their half of the inning. The two UCR runs came on back-to-back RBI singles to left field by Drew Garcia and Aaron Wible to give the Highlanders a 2-1 lead.
USD then regained the lead in the top of the fourth inning as they scored three runs on three hits. Sean Nicol led off the inning with a single to center field and moved to second on a Jose Valerio infield single. Kevin Hansen loaded the bases with another infield single and the first run came across on a wild pitch. Muno drove in Valerio with a groundout to the second baseman for the second run and the final USD run came across on another wild pitch to give USD a 4-2 lead.
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San Diego added to their lead in the top of the fifth inning scoring one run on two hits. Logan Gelbrich got things rolling with a stand-up double to center field and moved to third on a pass ball. Victor Sanchez then hit a bloop single into shallow left field to give USD a three-run lead at 5-2.
USD scored another run in the top of the seventh inning as Gelbrich recorded his second double of the game, then stole third and on the same play the UCR catcher overthrew the third baseman allowing Gelbrich to come across for an unearned run to push the Torero lead to four at 6-2.
The Highlanders then took back two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning on a two-run homer by Wible to cut the deficit to two at 6-4.
USD didn't fade away as they took advantage of two UCR throwing errors in the eighth inning. Both Hansen and Valerio led off the inning with back-to-back singles and then two UCR throwing errors on sacrifice bunt attempts by Nick McCoy and Muno scored the first two runs. Romanski drove in McCoy for the third run with a RBI single up the middle and Meador drove in Muno with a RBI single to left field foe the fourth and final run to give USD a 10-4 lead.
San Diego would cap their scoring for the game in the ninth inning scoring one run on a Hansen RBI single.
Offensively for the Toreros, every hitter that went to the plate recorded at least one hit with Hansen leading the way going 4-for-5 with one double and one RBI and Nicol went 3-for-5 with one double.
The Toreros will return to action on Wednesday as they host the Highlanders in a 3 p.m. game at USD's Cunningham Stadium.
