The San Diego baseball team entered PK Park Tuesday on an absolute tear.
The Toreros, ranked No. 19 in the nation by Baseball America, entered their first and only game of the season against the Ducks having won 16 of their past 18 games, including eight straight. San Diego (31-17 overall) is currently undefeated (15-0) in West Coast Conference play, coming off a critical road sweep of second-place Portland.
However, Tuesday’s contest marked the fifth game in five days, and the Toreros looked tired early, giving up six first-inning runs en route to a 13-4 blowout.
“That was about the story of the game,” Oregon coach George Horton said. “We maybe caught them a little bit flat after five straight games. That took the spark out of them.”
“It’s like being down 50-0 in football and you’re a triple-option team,” San Diego coach Rich Hill said. “When you get down that early in baseball, it takes away from some of the things that you want to do as far as the running game. Stealing, bunting, those kinds of things. You’ve just got to take quality at-bats from that point on.”
Quality at-bats were few and far between early on. First baseman Bryan Haar hit his sixth home run of the season to lead off the third inning, and San Diego strung together three runs on three hits (with one hit batsman) in the eighth inning.
Depth was tested early and often, as pitcher Mike Dedrick — starting for just the second time in 15 appearances — was chased out in the first inning. Hill used six pitchers in the game, none of whom went beyond two innings. Haar moved from first base to pitch the eighth inning for San Diego, his second relief appearance of the season; he allowed one hit and struck out one batter.
“It was important for us to keep at San Diego (offensively),” said starting left fielder Marcus Piazzisi. “We tried to keep the pressure on.”
Fourteen Toreros recorded an at-bat, with starting center fielder Kevin Muno the only player with two hits on the day. Starters such as right fielder James Meador, San Diego’s best hitter (.366, five home runs, 55 RBI), were taken out early for preservation purposes.
“It was good to see some of the guys that haven’t got a chance to get in there a little bit (and) get some (at-bats), because we’re going to need those guys down the road,” Hill said.
The challenge of a ranked team (Oregon is No. 22 in the nation) on the road is a valuable litmus test for Hill, whose team has played the third-toughest schedule in the nation.
“I don’t know that there’s a tougher non-conference strength of schedule out there,” Hill said. “We go to Arizona State and play two games there, we come up and play Oregon (and) Oregon State, play Cal State Fullerton, at Coastal Carolina. We like to be in this environment, in a beautiful ballpark, in a different part of the country. I think it helps our kids prepare for the NCAA tournament.”
The WCC champion receives an automatic bid, and the Toreros still have three-game series against Pepperdine (away) and St. Mary’s (at home) to lock it up.
“I said (to the team after the game that) we’re the number (19)-ranked team in the country, and that’s how you walk out of this ballpark. Your heads held high,” Hill said. “And we’re going to get on the bus and get to work on the next chapter of this thing.”
Oregon has a possible regional bid of its own to be sewn up as the regular season comes to a close. Catching San Diego at seemingly the right time only helps the Ducks’ cause.
“I think it’s a special victory,” Horton said. “Tired or not, they’re a good baseball team.
“They’re a top-25 team and they’re climbing up the ranks. When the (NCAA selection) committee’s sitting there looking (at our wins), and we haven’t won a lot of games down the stretch and are in that tweener, bubble category, this game might give us a little positive. Certainly, in the RPI, it plays well.”
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