Make it four-straight wins for No. 30 UCSB Baseball, which topped UC San Diego in a neutral game matchup 9-6 Friday night. The Gauchos traveled down to Lake Elsinore Diamond to top the Tritons in the first of a two-game series.
Cory Lewis (2-0) tossed five innings of one-run ball as one unearned run scored under his watch. He struck out six in the win.
Ryan Harvey once again closed things out defensively retiring all three batters in the ninth for his fourth save of the season.
On the offensive end, Bryce Willits went 3-for-5 with a double, a home run, and four RBI.
Nick Vogt collected four RBI as well going 1-for-2 with a bases-clearing triple and two walks.
The Tritons struck first in the bottom of the second scoring on a wild pitch to take a 1-0 lead, but the Gauchos answered quickly with a huge outing top of the third.
Six runs would come across in the inning, as Vogt roped a bases-loaded triple to left center to give his team a 3-1 lead on the fourth AB of the inning. Kyle Johnson made it 4-1 on an RBI single that scored Vogt and Willits, ending the scoring efforts with a two-run homer over the right field wall.
The eighth run of the game came in the top of the seventh, with Willits slapping a single up the middle mound to score Vogt and extend the lead 8-1.
Three Triton runs scored in the bottom of the seventh and the Gauchos answered with a Vogt sac-fly in the top of the eighth to make it 9-4.
Two more UCSD runs came across in the eighth, but UCSB got away with the 9-6 win.
UCSB will play UCSD again tomorrow at 4 p.m. at Lake Elsinore Diamond.
Daniel Moebus-Bowles writes about sports for UCSB.
email: sports@newspress.com
