No. 10 Toros Drop Last Chance at Redemption in 9-1 Loss to No. 3 Tritons

Box Score

LA JOLLA -- Being dealt three losses in the first three of a four games series, the No. 10 Cal State Dominguez Hills baseball squad missed their final chance to walk away on a positive note as they were handed a 9-1 loss to the No. 3 Tritons of UC San Diego to close out the series with John Skala bringing in the only run for the Toros.

The Toros wasted little time in trying to make a dent on the board as Carlos Leyva took a walk in the Toros' first at-bat before taking third on an Andrew Baslow sacrifice bunt to end up stranded, the closest CSUDH would come to home for the first seven frames of play.

UCSD came right back, scoring in the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth frames with Brandon Gregorich and Michael Benton belting homers to contribute to their team's eight runs in the first six frames.

Finally able to mount an offense in the seventh, the Toros came out in the eighth with three straight singles off the bats of Dean Benavidez, Leyva and Skala to see Benavidez home for the Toros' only run on the day.

The Tritons added one more in the bottom of the frame with neither team scoring in the ninth.

The shining moment for the Toros came in the ninth as Kevin Pillar came up to the dish facing an 0-of-3 day and sent a single to right and extend his consecutive game hit-streak to 47 games, two shy of tying the NCAA all-time record and now tied for the second longest all-time streak in Division II.

Taking the loss, Shane Youngdale hurled six straight and struck out two in giving up six earned runs while scattering 11 hits.

Also a positive, the Toros 'pen worked as well as they could on the day, fanning six Triton batters to UCSD's four Ks with relievers Andrew Klausmeier and Matt Phillips grabbing two Ks apiece.

The Toros, now 34-15 overall and 24-12 in the CCAA, dropped to third in the CCAA after the weekend but with four more conference games will have a final say to regain their foothold at No. 2 as they host Cal State Stanislaus this weekend with first pitch on Friday, April 30 at 3:00pm on Toro Field.

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