Toreros continue torrid start to WCC conference play

The storybook USD baseball season began with an abundance of hope, and fans were excited to follow the team’s ride on the Road to Omaha. There were certainly rough points in the beginning, but the Toreros’ perfect 9-0 start in conference play has put them back on track. They had a chance to build on that success this past weekend in a series with fellow WCC opponents, the University of San Francisco Dons.
Before the trip to San Francisco, however, the team continued their struggle in midweek games, dropping a 13-10 slugfest to 13th ranked Cal State Fullerton last Tuesday. Though that may appear to be a bit of a setback, it is not as devastating as it would appear. Any loss certainly stings, but the midweek games do not feature any pieces of what has become arguably the most deadly three-man rotation in the entire West Coast Conference, saving it instead for the weekend series.
Kyle Blair, Sammy Solis and A.J. Griffin have been the team’s main characters all season. The three starters have allowed USD the luxury of continuity; the knowledge that on any given weekend they will have their big three ready to dominate on the hill.
The only thing that could potentially derail this dream ride to Omaha now would be an untimely injury. And to continue with the cheesy “Road to Omaha” metaphor that has persisted throughout the entire season, Tuesday’s loss was a minor stop along the way.
Kyle Blair steered the team back in the right direction after another dominating performance in the series opener on Friday. He went eight innings and allowed just five hits and two runs while striking out eight to give USD a 4-2 victory and a 10-0 conference record.
Matt Hauser, who was recently one of 45 players named as a finalist for the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Stopper of the Year Award, recorded his sixth save of the season in the win.
Friday’s contest featured Slingin’ Sammy Solis as the starter, whose seven wins coming in were second in the WCC. Solis may not have been as dominating as usual, at least by his standards, but he still turned in the longest outing of his career, going nine innings and allowing just two earned runs on five hits and nine strikeouts in a game that required extra innings.
The game was knotted at 4-4 all the way until the 12th inning, when the Torero offense erupted for a six-run inning to score a 10-4 victory and keep their conference record perfect at 11-0 on the season.
As has been the case in every conference series thus far in the season, it was up to A.J. Griffin to take control and complete the sweep.
The Dons kept the Toreros offense silent most of the game and USD trailed 3-2 heading in to the eighth inning. However, the Toreros’ resiliency has been one of its strong points all year and they bounced back to tie the game in the eighth.
With the game tied at 3-3, Griffin shut down the Dons and gave USD a chance to take the lead in the top of the ninth, where Kevin Muno delivered the RBI double to give the team the lead.
Manager Rich Hill kept his faith in Griffin to close out the game and he was rewarded with a 1-2-3 inning and a 4-3 victory. Griffin finished the game allowing just three earned runs on six hits and he struck out 10 USF hitters for the complete game victory. The win improved USD’s WCC record to 12-0, good enough for first place in the conference.
Unfortunately, that is as far as this publication will travel along the Road to Omaha. But as the book closes on “The Vista” until next semester, the greatest chapters of the story of the 2010 Toreros baseball team have yet to be written.
Here’s hoping for a happy ending.