FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES
Fri. USD 8 – Portland St. 4
Sat. USD 5 – Portland St. 4
Sun. USD 13 – Portland St. 8
PORTLAND, Ore. – A hit parade helped propel the 13th-ranked University of San Diego baseball team to a 13-8 win over the University of Portland Sunday afternoon at Joe Etzel Field.
With the win, the Toreros improve to 27-11 overall, move to 7-2 in the WCC, complete a three-game sweep over the Pilots and run their winning streak to eight games. With the loss, the Pilots fall to 16-20 Overall and 2-7 in the WCC.
For the fifth consecutive game, the Toreros recorded double-digit hits, as today USD had 19 hits, led by James Meador who went 4-for-6 with two home runs and five RBI. Victor Sanchez also looked impressive as he went 3-for-5 with one double, one home run and four RBI to run his home run total to 11 on the season.
USD wasted no time in scoring as they scored one run in the first inning on a Josh Romanski RBI single, then they added one run in the second inning on a Kevin Muno RBI single to give USD a 2-0 advantage.
San Diego then put up three runs in the third inning to begin to pull away. Sean Nicol got things started with a single and moved to second on a Meador single. Logan Gelbrich then loaded the bases with a single and Romanski drove in Nicol with a groundout to the shortstop. Victor Sanchez did the rest with a two-run single to put the Torero advantage at 5-0.
In the fourth inning, with two outs, Sean Nicol got things started with a single to left field, then Meador launched his first home run of the afternoon, a two-run blast over the right centerfield fence to give the Toreros a 7-0 lead.
After a Kevin Hansen RBI single in the fifth inning gave the Toreros an 8-1 lead, Sanchez drove in two runs with his 11th home run of the season, a two run shot over the left field fence to put the game well out of reach at 10-1.
The final three Torero runs came on a three-run homer by Meador in the top of the seventh inning to give USD a comfortable 13-1 advantage.
The Pilots then scored seven runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to make things interesting. The Portland runs came on three-run Cory Wiltshire home run, a two-run double from Danny Meier, a wild pitch and the final run came on a Clayton Shaw RBI groundout to put the game at its final of 13-8.
Kyle Blair (4-3) looked impressive on the mound for the Toreros as he took a no-hitter into the fourth inning before surrendering his first hit of the game to the lead off hitter. He then kept the Pilot batters off balance until the seventh inning when he allowed six runs to cross the plate. Overall he allowed six runs on six hits, while striking out five in 6.0 innings of work. Ari Ronick (3-4) was saddled with the loss for the Pilots as he allowed seven runs on 10 hits in 4.0 innings of work.
The Toreros will return to action on Tuesday as they host UC Irvine in a 3 p.m. non-conference game at Cunningham Stadium
