Senior Nick Loredo was supposed to pitch three innings in his start against USC on Tuesday.
After three innings, UCSB scrapped those plans.
Loredo (2-0) tossed 7.1 innings, allowing six hits and a pair of runs en
route to a 3-2 win on Tuesday afternoon in Santa Barbara. When he
departed the game in the eighth inning there were two runners on and the
Gauchos were up 3-0.
“My arm felt good and I wanted to make them earn it,” Loredo said. “I
was throwing my pitches where I wanted to and was freezing them. I
wanted to work both sides of the plate and keep them off-balanced.”
The Gauchos (6-4) broke on top of the Trojans (3-9) with a run in the
fourth inning. Second baseman Sean Williams and first baseman Trevor
Whyte opened things with back-to-back singles. After Mark Haddow flied
out to center field and Joe Wallace struck out looking, Ryan Palermo
lined a single to center field, scoring Williams.
In the bottom of the fifth, catcher Dan Camou and shortstop Steven Moon
each singled to start the inning, chasing USC starter Brandon Garcia (0-2).
The first batter that reliever Ben Mount faced, Ben Edelstein,
sacrificed the runners to second and third. The next batter, Williams,
doubled to left center, plating Camou and Moon, pushing the UCSB lead to
3-0.
The score remained 3-0 until the top of the eighth.
Pinch hitter Garret Houts drew a walk off Loredo to open the inning.
Catcher Kevin Roundtree singled to right and Houts stopped at second.
Third baseman Adam Landecker sacrificed runners to second and third and
that was it for Loredo.
Lefty Nick Capito came in to face Ricky Oropesa who, after falling
behind 0-2, lined a single to right field scoring both runners. Bryce
Uhrig was brought in to replace Capito and induced Joe De Pinto to line
into a shortstop-to-first baseman double play.
The Gauchos went down 1-2-3 in the ninth and Matthew Vedo was brought in
to pitch the ninth.
Alex Sherrod started things with a single on the infield and pinch
hitter Matt Hart walked. Omar Cotto Lozada pinch ran for Sherrod and
Garcia, who moved to designated hitter after he came out as pitcher,
sacrificed the runners into scoring position. Pinch hitter, Mike Greco,
was walked intentionally to load the bases.
After pitching coach Tom Myers went to the mound to calm Vedo, the lanky
right hander responded by striking out Houts looking and getting
Roundtree to ground out to Steven Moon at short, earning his first save.
Williams, Whyte and Moon led the Santa Barbara attack with two hits
apiece. Moon had a triple to go with a single. Oropesa and Roundtree
each had a pair of hits to lead USC.
The Gauchos will travel to San Francisco this weekend to play in the AT&T Classic. They will play San Francisco on Friday, Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday and nationally-ranked Rice on Sunday. All games will be played at AT&T Park.
