Three losses in a row that totaled just 10 runs were easily forgotten on Wednesday as the UCSB baseball team toppled No. 21 San Diego State, 15-8 at Tony Gwynn Stadium, splitting the home and home series.
The Gauchos, 15-8 overall, jumped out to a 13-0 lead as Mark Haddow hit a two-run home run and Matt Valaika added a three-run shot during a seven-run second inning.
Every UCSB starter had at least one hit – seven enjoyed multi-hit games – while six players knocked in at least one run. Valaika led the charge with a season-best four RBI while Eric Oliver went 4-for-6 with three RBI.
Ryan Cavan, who entered the game batting .412, went 2-for-6 with two runs scored and two RBI. It was his 11th multi-hit game of the season, a team-high.
Gunnar Terhune extended his hitting streak to six straight games – and 10 of his past 11 – in his native San Diego while Haddow, also a San Diego native, blasted his first home run since Feb. 27 and second of the year.
Greg Davis made his first start of the season and allowed just one run on three hits over four innings, taking the lead of a planned “staff day.”
Clayton Edwards relieved Davis to open the fifth and surrendered six runs in 1.1 innings, a day after giving up two runs in 2.1 innings on Tuesday vs. the Aztecs (19-10). That allowed SDSU to pull within 13-7, but Zach Samuels (1.2 innings pitched, one hit) andDavid Meals (two innings, four hits, one run) wouldn’t allow the Aztecs to pull out a win.
After scoring a run in the first on Cavan’s single that scored Brian Gump (2-for-4, four runs, one RBI) the Gauchos erupted for seven runs in the second and five more in the third.
John DeAlba led off the second with a single and Haddow homered to left to make it 3-0. After a single and an out, Terhune, Gump and Oliver all singled bringing up Valaika. His three-run shot was his second of the season and now he boasts 18 RBI this season, not far off his career-high 27 set in 2007.
With two outs in the third, UCSB scored all five of its runs, as Oliver’s bases-loaded single drove in two and Cavan’s RBI base hit brought in one more. A wild pitch allowed the Gauchos their fifth run of the frame.
In the seventh, Oliver hit a run-scoring double and scored when Ryan Tregoning reached on an error.
The win snapped a three-game losing streak and precedes a three-game series this weekend vs. Pacific in UCSB’s Big West home opener. Friday’s game will start at 2 p.m. while both Saturday and Sunday’
