CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) — Ian Churchill got two solid plays from his defense to earn a save and San Diego held on to defeat Vanderbilt 3-2 on Friday in the Corvallis Regional.
After allowing a leadoff walk to Enrique Bradfield and a sacrifice bunt by Javier Vaz, the Torero defense saved the day. A hard smash to third by Spencer Jones was knocked down by Jack Costello , who scrambled to barely get the putout at first while keeping Bradfield, who is 43 for 43 stealing bases this season and 90 of 96 for his career, at second.
An intentional walk to Dominic Keegan, who had a solo home run in the seventh, set up the force out but Jack Bulger drilled a line drive into right field that Angelo Peraza had to jump to catch after starting in on the ball.
San Diego (37-18) meets the winner between regional host Oregon State and New Mexico on Saturday after the Commodores (36-15) face the loser.
Caleb Ricketts had a run-scoring groundout in the first and an RBI double in the third for San Diego, which took a 3-0 lead after four innings on a Camden Vasquez ground out.
Keegan’s two-out homer in the seventh inning and Hewett’s to lead off the eighth got Vanderbilt back in the game.
Brycen Mautz gave up four hits in seven innings and struck out five to improve to 10-2. Churchill’s save was his fourth.
Carter Holton (8-4) suffered the loss, allowing two earned runs and five hits in six innings.
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