Triton Bats Mash: Score 40 Runs over Weekend in Sweep of CSUN
The Tritons traveled to North Hills to take on the Matadors in a 3 game set. The Bats stayed hot throughout the entire weekend. The Tritons scored 8 runs in the first two innings of game 1 on the backs of doubles by Juniors, Jacob Springman, Miguel Moreno, and Senior, Seamus Beyerle, with the Bats taking a commanding 8-1 lead after two innings of play. The hot hitting continued into the following inning when Junior Hunter Woodruff launched his second home run of the fall. Two batters later, Beyerle followed suit with his second home run of the fall; a 2 run shot to left to give the Tritons an 11-1 lead. From there it was smooth sailing as the Tritons tacked on 3 more runs, to go along with strong pitching performances by Juniors Ray Young and Matt Hosino. The Tritons cruised to a 15-2 mercy rule victory after 5 innings.
Game 2 proved to be a much tighter contest. The Tritons took the 1-0 lead in the top of the second, with an rbi single from Junior Josh Fonseca. Hosino continued his strong pitching performance from game 1 and was able to pitch 3 shutout innings. Tritons lead 1-0 after three. In the top of the fourth, the Tritons were able to take the lead on an Rbi double by Moreno, but were unable to break the game open after failing to score with runners on second and third with one out, 2-1 Triton lead. Freshman Rocco Novello was next to take the mound for the Tritons. He provided a solid 1 and 1/3 innings, but the Tritons ran into trouble on defense, giving up 2 runs and the lead. Matadors lead 3-2 after 5. The Tritons were able to complete the comeback with 3 runs in the top of the 6th thanks to a clutch two out, two strike, pinch hit single by Junior Ray Estrada to tie the game and rbi singles from Moreno and Woodruff. Jacob Springman was able to close the game for the Tritons as he secured the save with a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the seventh. Tritons win game 2, 5-3.
Hitting was contagious in game 3 as the Tritons scored 20 runs on 23 hits. Just about every player got in on the action with multi hit games from Moreno, Novello, Beyerle, Juniors Kelvin Murillo, Joey Flores, and Gabe Mateus. Woodruff had himself a game, as he collected 4 hits, 2 of them being home runs, to give him his team leading third and fourth homers of the fall. We even got to see the fall hitting debut of pitcher Ray Young, who hit a double just over the reach of the center fielder. After 9 innings of a total slugfest, the Tritons prevailed 20-10 to complete the sweep. The Tritons look to top off their impressive 8-1 fall record by winning the annual CSU Fullerton wood-bat tournament next weekend.