SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco senior left-hander Matt Lujan outdueled Gaucho ace Jesse Meaux, limiting UCSB’s baseball team to just three hits as USF defeated UCSB, 3-2, in the opener of the Cal Baseball Classic, presented by Safeway, at AT&T Park on Friday afternoon.
Lujan, who was a Freshman All-American three years ago, allowed just three hits and two runs in eight innings, striking out six. As a team the Gauchos did draw five walks, but weren’t able to cash any of those in and fell to 6-5 overall this season.
USF took advantage of two Gaucho errors, scoring two of its runs unearned to top UCSB.
Meaux allowed just one earned run on five hits through five innings and the Gaucho bullpen pitched admirably – allowing two hits and an unearned run with three strikeouts the rest of the way – but it wasn’t enough.
After the Dons (6-7) scored twice in the first – taking advantage of one of the Gaucho errors – Meaux retired nine of the next 12 men he faced to keep his team close.
UCSB finally scratched out a pair of runs in the sixth inning when Ben Edelstein and Mark Haddow each tripled – the latter bringing home the former – and Joe Wallace’s base hit drove in Haddow to even the score.
Then, in the seventh, USF brought in the winning run on a throwing error by Dan Camou, which brought home Jason Mahood, who doubled and stole third, scoring on Camou’s miscue.
Matthew Brady (0-1) took the defeat, despite allowing just one hit and getting a strikeout in his 0.2 innings of work.
The three hits UCSB strung together in the sixth inning were all it could muster on the day as the team left four runners on and grounded into a double play.
The Gauchos will face Louisiana-Lafayette in an 11 a.m. game at AT&T Park on Saturday and then finish with an afternoon game on Sunday against No. 18 Rice. The team returns home for a three-game series vs. Nevada starting on Saturday, March 19 with a doubleheader.
