UC Irvine outlasts USD in extras

Toreros come up on wrong end of 11-inning game, losing 2-1

Anderson Haigler | Sports Editor | The USD Vista

Tuesday nights in college baseball are often characterized by high-scoring, offense-dominated games. With conference series often looming in the weekend ahead, many coaches lean heavily on their bullpen to preserve their starting pitching for the weekend, leading to games that resemble more of a slugfest than a pitcher’s duel.

USD’s game against the University of California, Irvine last week, however, only partially matched that stereotype. True to form, USD baseball head coach Rich Hill ran through four different pitchers in the first four innings of the contest, with the Anteaters following suit with three pitchers of their own. What differed about this midweek matchup was the effectiveness of each team pitching by committee. Utilizing a total of 12 different hurlers, both teams put up nine innings of one-run baseball, leading to a 1-1 tie as they headed to extra innings. Though the Toreros eventually came up on the wrong end of an 11-inning, 2-1 decision, the low-scoring affair represented a positive step for a team that has been searching for answers out of their bullpen. 

The game began for the Toreros with sophomore Louis Crow on the mound. Back-to-back singles from Irvine lead-off man Cole Krueter and Brendan Brooks followed by a wild pitch put Crow in a hole early on. A walk and a sacrifice fly moved the score to 1-0 in favor of the Anteaters, representing the only run they would score for the next 10 innings of play. However, Hill opted to go to the bullpen early, yanking Crow in favor of right-handed redshirt senior Nate Kutcha. Posting 1 1/3 scoreless innings, Kutcha’s appearance marked the beginning of a full game’s worth of scoreless frames for the Torero bullpen. Following Kutcha, however, Hill looked to his bullpen yet again, this time for senior lefty Doug Nimura. Nimura, who had appeared in just three games this season prior to that night, came in and worked himself out of a two-out jam to begin his stint on the mound, then proceeded to settle in for 2 1/3 innings of scoreless work. Hill stated that he was impressed with Nimura’s performance after the game.

“I think Doug Nimura really stood out,” Hill said. “He’s done that a couple times, he did that against Stanford, kinda came in, got us out of a jam. Like today, a big double play. I thought he was outstanding.”

 Nimura’s outing came to an end much the like way it began, though, with a bases-loaded jam. A fielder’s choice, a walk, and a single resulted in two men on base in the top of the fifth, which lead to a visit to the bullpen for the fourth time on the night — this time to bring in junior Justin Friedman. Friedman promptly gave up a single, but ultimately pitched himself out of a bases-loaded situation to end the inning. He would go on to pitch 2 1/3 innings without surrendering a run like Nimura before him, then handed the ball off to redshirt freshman Travis Kuhn, who matched his outing with 2 1/3 scoreless innings of his own. On a night that the Toreros consistently put up zeros while relying on a multitude of different pitchers, Hill explained his approach out of  the bullpen.

“Tuesday games in college baseball, you know, we were really trying to go one time through the order with each guy,” Hill said. “I really had no script today, whoever was gonna kind of seize the opportunity and make the most out of their spot. I just kept looking for the answers. And I thought our guys did a good job of, you know, pitching in the stretch with guys on base in what some would call a ‘high-stress’ situation, getting out of jams. The bases were loaded I think three innings in a row: the first, second, and third.”

Friedman spoke about his own pitching performance, as well as those of his teammates.

“In games like this where you know it’s gonna be a whole staff it’s all about picking up the guy before you, and the next guy you’re gonna pass the ball to is gonna do the same thing,” Friedman said. “Just putting up zeros, and at the end of the day you just look up and everybody just minimizes their inning, does what they can in their inning and passes it to the next guy.”

While the Torero bullpen was busy putting up zeros, the USD offense largely struggled to get anything going. The Toreros’ lone run of the game came on a well-hit Jay Schuyler solo home run in the eighth inning  that cleared the trees beyond the left field fence by a healthy margin and knotted the game at one run apiece. Schuyler spoke about the at-bat in which he hit  the home run. 

“Facing him in my earlier at-bat, he got the best of me — he struck me out on a good slider,” Schuyler said. “Going up there my second at-bat I kinda knew in the back of my mind he might try to go back to it again cause it worked for him in the first at-bat. I fouled a couple pitches off, and just in that last pitch he left a slider up and I was able to catch it out front and put a good swing on it.”

Schuyler, who is batting .351 on the year, has made himself an integral part of the Toreros’ offense as the season has gone on. After the game, he discussed his approach at the plate, and what has been working well for him in that regard.

“I’ve just been trying to find some good pitches to hit,” Schyuler said. “I’ve been trying to do a good job of swinging at strikes and taking balls, getting myself into good hitters’ counts. Just trying to do what I can with mistakes, and if a pitcher makes a good pitch, I tip my cap and move on to the next one.”

The Torero bullpen could only hang on for so long, and  Schuyler’s home run would ultimately not be enough for USD.  As the game moved to the 11th inning and stretched into the later hours of Tuesday night, the Toreros turned to junior lefty Anthony Donatella after redshirt first-year Travis Kuhn turned in 2 1/3 scoreless. Donatella and the Toreros would ultimately be derailed by one pitch — a fastball that catcher Matt Reitano turned around for a solo home run to left-center field, giving the Anteaters a 2-1 lead and invigorating a surprisingly robust crowd of Irvine fans who made the trip south for the game.  

Though he surrendered the go-ahead run, Hill stated that he has liked Donatella’s performance as a whole so far this season.

“I think Anthony Donatella, who’s been brilliant all year, shouldn’t hang his head,” Hill said. “You know, that home run, he just fell behind on that guy, and we had to come inside to keep him off base, and you have to give credit to their guy.”

Unable to get anything going in the bottom of the 11th, the Toreros found themselves on the wrong side of a 2-1, extra-innings decision, and suffered the loss. 

The Toreros’ non-conference game against UC Irvine represented a mid-week tuneup that fell in the middle of West Coast Conference play.  With three conference series under their belt,  and six lying ahead of them, the Toreros currently sit at 6-6 in WCC play, good for a tie for fourth place. Schuyler spoke about the team’s mindset as they prepare to make their way through a challenging slate of conference games.

“The last couple games our pitching staff has pitched really well, we just haven’t really been able to score a bunch of runs,“ Schuyler said. “We did in (the game against the University of San Francisco), we came away with a good win, but the pitching staff threw a shutout, so we’re feeling really confident in our pitching staff. They’ve been throwing the ball really well. Hopefully moving forward we can just score some runs, help them out a little bit.”

Hill stated that he is not concerned with his team’s conference performance so far.

“It’s a work in progress,” Hill said. ”We’re trying to get one inch better every day. We don’t pay attention to the win-loss record or standings or anything else. It’s about the play, it’s always about the play, and that’s what our focus is: playing better. When you have a mindset of improvement, and mental toughness, and competing, that’s usually a good recipe for success.”

The Toreros take on Saint Mary’s College for a three-game set of West Coast Conference games beginning Friday at 6 p.m. at Fowler Park.