Toros Lose Big Lead, Drop CCAA Baseball Game to UCSD
Down 8-0, Tritons rally to win in 11
May 4, 2005

Courtesy UC San Diego Sports Information Office

Complete Box Score

LA JOLLA, Calif - The UC San Diego baseball team came all the way back from an 8-0 deficit to defeat Cal State Dominguez Hills 10-9 in 11 innings, clinching a spot in the CCAA Tournament held May 12-14. The game ended in the 11th when Alex Gascon scored on a wild pitch with two outs.

UCSD improves to 29-19 overall, and finishes CCAA action with a 23-17 mark. CSUDH falls to 22-30, 12-24 CCAA.

In the CSUDH second, Ian Corso led off with a walk and Matt Hopps singled. David Leos grounded out and advanced the runners to second and third. Houston Hernandez singled through the leftside, scoring Corso for the 1-0 CSUDH lead. Boutilier then threw a ground ball to short to start a double play to end the inning without further damage.

In the CSUDH third, Chris Hernandez singled ahead of Isidro Perez’ homerun to rightfield for the 3-0 lead. Jose Montes doubled and Ian Corso homered as the Toros went up 5-0.

The Toros scored three more times in the fourth inning to lead 8-0.

Craig King led off the UCSD fifth with a bunt single and David Gomez singled through the leftside. Joel Clark beat out a bunt to first base to load the bases with no outs. Matt Lawson hit a sac fly to center, scoring King and Gomez advanced to third. David Morehead hit a sac fly on a great catch by the second baseman and Gomez tagged to score to make it 8-2. Brian Robinson cleared the bases with a double down the rightfield line to cut the Toro lead in half to 8-4.

With one out in the Triton sixth, King singled through the leftside and Gomez walked on four pitches. After the CSUDH pitching change, Clark doubled to leftcenter, scoring King and Gomez to bring UCSD within 8-6.

In the seventh, CSUDH got back to scoring as Ricky Eda hit a 3-0 pitch over the leftfield wall, for his league leading 19th homerun as the Toros led 9-6.

In the Triton seventh, Alex Gascon and Robinson hit back-to-back singles to centerfield with no outs. Ricky Pinocchio put down a sac bunt to move the runners over. Keith Hernandez hit a sac fly to rightfield, scoring Gascon to cut the lead to 9-7.

With one out in the eighth, UCSD’s Clark hit an infield single to shortstop and would score on Lawson’s double down the leftfield line to cut the lead to 9-8. Morehead came through with a game tying single up the middle, 9-9.

Robinson led off the ninth and was hit-by-pitch, and Ryan Langone entered as the pinch runner. Pinocchio beat out his attempted sacrifice bunt, puting runners on first and second with no outs. With one out, King hit into a fielder’s choice as Langone advanced to third and King at first. Chris Hom came on to pinch hit and lined out to leftfield as the game went into extra innings.

Eda led off the 10th frame with a double to leftfield and advanced to third on Perez’s groundout. Montes lined out on a great play by Pinocchio for the second out as Eda remained at third. Corso was intentionally walked to put runners on the corners with two outs. Leake recorded a key strikeout to end the frame.

Gascon led off the 11th with a single and advanced to second on Langone’s sac bunt. Pinocchio grounded out and Gascon advanced to third. Hernandez was intentionally walked to set up the force. Pinch hitter, Damian Fante was hit-by-pitch, loading the bases for Hom. The UCSD comeback would be complete on the CSUDH wild pitch as Gascon slid home, clinching the CCAA playoff spot for the Tritons.

Ryan Leake (6-4) pitched 6.2 innings of relief, giving up four hits, one run and striking out eight in keeping the Tritons within striking distance. Brian Robinson went 4-for-4 with two RBI as David Morehead, Matt Lawson and Joel Clark also drove in two RBI apiece.

The Toros finish the season with back-to-back dates at Cal State L.A. On Friday the teams play a single game beginning at 2 p.m., followed by a Saturday doubleheader starting at 11 a.m.