After a much needed week off, UCSD Club Baseball came into the weekend looking for their first win of the season against the University of Arizona. After the first five and a half innings, it looked like the Triton squad hadn’t made any adjustments. Trailing 10-4 heading into the bottom of the 6th, the Tritons’ defense was less than impressive, making 5 errors and allowing 4 unearned runs. The Triton bats however, finally came alive in the bottom of the 6th scoring 5 runs to bring the game back into reach. Slugger Jean Pierre Herd doubled in the 7th to score the tying run, and the game went into extra innings. Freshman pitcher Asher Epifano threw 3 shut out innings in the 7th, 8th, and 9th to keep the Tritons in the game until Jayden Kim drew a walk-off walk in the bottom of the 9th to give the Tritons their first win of the season 11-10.

It was a hot day on Saturday, and both teams came into the second game of the day tired and sunburnt. Through the 3rd inning, it was a 3-3 deadlock, and it seemed like the Tritons had an answer for anything the Wildcats could throw at them. A 3-run 5th inning from the Wildcats blew the game open however, and the Tritons just couldn’t quite respond, dropping Game 2 8-4.

On Sunday, Freshman pitcher Seth Rutman took the mound as he looked to recreate his magic from the previous series. He couldn’t quite match what he did against the Aztecs, giving up 5 runs in 6 innings, and a 2 for 4 day at the plate from graduate student Finn Daecher wasn’t enough to pull the Tritons to a win as they lost the final game of the weekend 6-3.

The Tritons travel to Phoenix next weekend to play GCU in a series that is looking more and more like a make or break point for their season. The team remains optimistic and after a hard week at practice, feels they will be ready for the challenge.