Toreros sweep Pepperdine with walk-off win

The three wins put San Diego into joint first place in conference standings

Eric Boose / Sports Editor / The USD Vista

Designated hitter Thomas Luevano led off the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday with a walk. Four runs and two outs later, he strode to the plate again, the bases loaded, needing only to get on base to finish the inning he started and make the Toreros walk-off winners. Luevano didn’t need to swing his bat. The first pitch from Pepperdine reliever Dane Morrow hit USD’s slugger square in the back, sending Luevano to first and the Toreros into delirium.

Before Luevano took the game winning slider to the spine, his teammates had put together an impressive string of hits. After Luevano’s lead-off walk, second baseman Will Worthington and right fielder Tora Otsuka both got on with a walk and a hit-by-pitch, respectively. Sophomore first baseman Caleb Ricketts drilled a double into the left field corner to bring them all home and bring the Toreros within a run. First-year infielder Chase Meidroth hit a single through the Pepperdine third baseman to put runners on the corners, and first-year left fielder Jack Costello singled to score Ricketts and tie the game. A walk to sophomore shortstop Cody Jefferis loaded the bases, and the rest was history.

After the win, Head Coach Rich Hill credited his team’s mentality and the sheer number of quality at-bats they strung together in the final inning. He also noted that his team has quite the impressive record at home at Fowler Park.

“That was just Fowler magic at its best,” Hill said. “I think we’re like 26-2 over the last two years at Fowler, and our guys just believe that we’re going to find a way to win whenever we’re at home.” 

Hill’s squad is not only strong at home, but San Diego is no stranger to comeback wins. In their first home game of the season, the Toreros overcame a nine-run deficit to beat cross-town rivals San Diego State. Jefferis said that games like that one gave USD the confidence to pull off their five-run ninth inning on Sunday.

“It’s always tough when you’re down, but we know as a team we’ve been in that situation before, so it’s honestly not that big of a deal for us,” Jefferis said. “Whether we’re down one run or five runs, we always know that we have a chance to come back, no matter what the situation is, and we proved that today, in the end.”

The Toreros’ rally didn’t just decide Sunday’s game, it clinched the Toreros’ fifth series sweep this year, with San Diego winning a nervy affair on Saturday, 7-6, after a comfortable 8-3 victory on Friday.

Sophomore pitcher Jake Miller started Friday’s game for USD, and while he wasn’t perfect, he kept the Waves off the board for six innings, striking out eight Pepperdine batters in the process. While Miller stymied the visitors, the home team wasted no time scoring. 

Costello hit a one-out single to get on base, and junior catcher Shane McGuire almost homered to right center right afterward. While the ball stayed in the park, it didn’t stay in the Waves’ outfielder’s glove, and McGuire got a double. With two outs, Luevano smacked a base hit to left field, and while Costello scored easily, McGuire was tagged out at home, so the Toreros had to settle for just the one run.

San Diego added to their lead in the bottom of the fifth inning as three straight hits, including an RBI double by Otsuka, scored a run and put runners on second and third. Jefferis hit a fly ball deep enough to center field that those runners could each move up a base, scoring a second run of the inning. 

Now with a three-run lead, Miller got into trouble in the top of the sixth inning. He gave up back-to-back singles before recording the first out of the inning, but still had runners on first and third with only the one out. But Miller struck out the next two batters, including Pepperdine’s hard-hitting first baseman, Justin Lutes. Hill mentioned his Friday starter’s work as one of the key moments from the series.

“That’s why a Friday starter is so important to a college program, it sets the tone for the weekend,” Hill said. “When you have a Friday guy that can go deep in a game, it can really set you up for the weekend, so that’s huge.”

In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Torero bats came alive to put the game out of Pepperdine’s reach. Jefferis started the scoring with a two-RBI single past the Waves’ second baseman, and Costello brought Jefferis home. Costello launched his team’s only home run of the series over the wall in left field to stretch the Toreros’ lead to seven. They would get one more run in the inning, as, with two runners on, Pepperdine catcher Joe Caparis missed a throw to first so badly that USD third baseman Adam Lopez came home from second base. 

But with Miller’s evening on the mound done after his efforts in the top of the sixth, San Diego’s relief pitchers were not as steady. First year Ivran Romero gave up one run in the top of the seventh inning, and fellow first year Jack Hyde was responsible for two in the eighth. Even so, the Waves never got close enough to pose a threat.

The same could not be said in Saturday’s game. Pepperdine shortstop Wyatt Young hit the first pitch of the game into left centerfield for a double, and he would come around to score by the end of the first inning. But the Toreros answered with an explosion of runs in the bottom of the first, scoring five. 

Jefferis led off the inning with a walk, and Costello’s grounder was too hot for Young to handle at shortstop. Lopez singled to drive in Jefferis, and Luevano doubled to bring home Costello and Lopez. Luevano got to third base after a pitch got away from Waves’ catcher Ryan Johnson, and Ricketts brought him home with a single. Ricketts got to third himself on another wild pitch, meaning Worthington’s fly ball to right field was enough to bring Ricketts home. 

San Diego’s lead lasted, but was never as large. A walk and a double brought Pepperdine another run in the top of the second, and they picked up a second after Ricketts couldn’t handle Jefferis’s throw for what would have been the third out. USD put up two more of their own in the bottom of the third, but that was it for the Toreros’ scoring output on Saturday.

Quickly, the visitors went about closing the gap. Lutes led off the top of the fourth inning with a home run to right center field, and outfielder Billy Cook made it back-to-back jacks with a homer to left field to bring the Waves within two. San Diego’s starter, redshirt first-year Connor Thurman, got out of the inning, but that was the end of his night. 

First-year pitcher Carter Rustad took over starting in the fifth inning, a planned move, according to Coach Hill. Hill chose to “go for the gut punch,” using Rustad, who could have started Sunday’s game, to clinch the series win for the Toreros Saturday night. Rustad did his job, pitching four scoreless innings. 

Graduate student Kieran Shaw took over in the ninth inning and would have finished it unscathed, had a pitch just on the outside of the strike zone been called a strike. Instead, it was called a ball, and the batter walked. The very next guy up, designated hitter Connor Bradshaw, hit a double to score Pepperdine’s sixth run. Before the Waves could score any more, Jefferis threw a laser from shortstop to first to record the final out of the game. 

While Rustad’s work Saturday night had been crucial, it left USD without a starter on Sunday. Romero, a reliever, started the game but only made it through two innings, in which he gave up a three-run home run to Cook. Hyde relieved Romero, only made it two innings himself, and also gave up a three-run homer. Off Romero and Hyde, Pepperdine scored three runs in the second inning and four in the third. Redshirt sophomore reliever Ryan Robinson relieved Hyde in the middle of a messy fifth inning, but couldn’t fully stop the bleeding, as the Waves put up their final two runs in that frame. 

In the early stages of the game, USD had kept with Pepperdine in terms of scoring. Jefferis hit a single to start a string of hits that gave the Toreros a run in the first inning, and he hit an RBI triple as part of a three-run second inning for San Diego. But, until the ninth inning, that was pretty much it. USD picked up a solitary run in the fifth, but that was mostly thanks to Pepperdine errors rather than San Diego hitting. 

After the game, Coach Hill pointed out an unsung hero of the Toreros’ comeback: first-year relief pitcher Lucas Braun. Braun entered the game in the seventh inning, with one out and runners on the corner. Not only did he get out of the jam, he finished the game for San Diego.

“If there’s one story of this game, it’s Lucas Braun,” Hill said. “That’s a big weekend series where he threw two and two-thirds scoreless, sat at 91 (MPH), threw his curveball for a strike, and allowed us to get back into the game and have that big inning at the end.”

With the sweep, USD moves to 28-8 overall, 14-4 in West Coast Conference play, making them tied with Gonzaga for first place in the conference. The Toreros were originally scheduled to play the Bulldogs in Spokane over the weekend, but GU had to postpone due to COVID-19 issues. The two teams will now meet at the end of May in a series with potential conference title and postseason implications. Since there is no WCC Tournament this year, the regular season champion will receive the conference’s automatic bid to an NCAA Tournament Regional.

But Coach Hill isn’t looking toward the season finale yet. There are still two series for USD to get through before they take on the Bulldogs. 

“Hopefully it will come down to that weekend,” Hill said. “We’re both 14-4, tied for first, but we’ve both got work to do. We’ve got BYU, who presents a real challenge, they can really pitch, and that’s all I’m really thinking about right now … Our guys are so locked in on the moment that Gonzaga doesn’t exist, neither does Portland, really. It’s just all about preparing for BYU. I’m actually focused on Tuesday, having a good practice, more than anything else.”

That preparation will have to be quick, as the turnaround for USD to host the Cougars will be one day shorter than usual, as the series starts today, May 6, at 6 p.m.