The University of San Diego could not overcome No. 14 UC Santa Barbara in Sunday’s elimination game at the NCAA Regional in Santa Barbara, falling 4-2.
With the loss, the Toreros, winners of both the West Coast Conference regular-season and tournament titles, finish the year at 41-15. UCSB (44-13) will face Oregon in the regional final, in a rematch of a Saturday game in which Oregon prevailed.
Starter Logan Reddemann gave up two-run homers in the second and third innings to Jonah Sebring and Ivan Brethowr respectively and the runs held up for the Gauchos.
Down 4-0, the Toreros finally got to starter Mike Gutierrez in the sixth thanks to WCC Player of the Year Jakob Christian. With Ariel Armas on, he offered up a two-run homer of his own to cut UCSB’s lead in half.
But that would be all despite a golden opportunity in the seventh when they knocked out Gutierrez and had two runners in scoring position with one out. But a failed squeeze play cut down Justin DeCriscio at home and Dustin Allen was stranded after reliever Jackson Flora retired Angelo Peraza on a deep fly ball.
Gaucho Cole Tryba earned the save by shutting down the Toreros in two innings of work in which he gave up no hits. He did however, issue a walk to Allen with two outs in the top of the ninth, bringing Will Worthington to the plate as the tying run.
And he worked Tryba hard, hitting six foul balls after falling behind 1-2, only to strike out swinging on the 10th pitch of the at-bat.
Christian and Allen had two hits apiece in the losing effort, while the Toreros combined to strike out 13 Gauchos. Reddemann, who took the loss, had seven Ks, and Ivran Romero, who spelled him, six.
The winner of the Santa Barbara regional moves on to the Super Regionals, where the participants in the College World Series will be determined.
