SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Santa Clara baseball heads south to face UC San Diego (1-7) in the first ever meeting between the two schools for a four-game series starting on Thursday at Triton Ballpark.  

 

This marks the third-straight four-game series for the Broncos (4-7) having played an alternate site series against Stanford going 1-3 and splitting last weekend's home series against Sacramento State. 

 

Santa Clara shutout Stanford (Feb. 28) in the series finale and followed with another blanking of Sacramento State (March 4) in the series opener marking the first time the Bronco pitching staff tossed shutouts in back-to-back games for the first time since 1997.  The scoreless inning streak reached 25 innings before Sacramento State scored a run in the eighth inning in the second game of series.

 

Playing at the Division II level last season, UC San Diego finished 17-4 and was ranked number one by Collegiate Baseball before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

This season marks the first year playing as a NCAA Division I institution as the entire athletics program is making a four-year transition to become a full DI status member of the Big West Conference.  

 

SANTA CLARA NOTES    

UC San Diego went 17-4 last season ranked number one in Division II by Collegiate Baseball before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2021 season marks the first year playing as a NCAA Division I institution as the entire athletics program has begun a four-year transition, culminating in full DI status as a member of the Big West Conference for the 2024-25 academic year. In UCSD's 20 year history of Division II baseball, the Tritons played post season baseball 11 times and made the World Series five times, finishing runner-up in 2010 and 2017.

The pitching staff brings back every starter from a year ago where they combined to post a 2.86 ERA, however, this season the numbers have ballooned to 7.73 ERA.

The Tritons have lost six-straight after picking up their first Division I victory over San Diego State on Feb. 27. San Diego, from the West Coast Conference, swept UCSD in a four-game series last weekend. The opponent have outscored the Tritons 78 to 42.

Aren Alvarez, Brandon Weed, Cameron Leonard and Chris Gilmartin have each made two starts on the year and Alvarez has the lowest ERA amongst them at 8.59.

Offensively, UCSD is hitting .230 with Anthony Lucchetti leading the way with a .417 batting average and .533 OBP. Five different hitters have a home run including Lucchetti to lead the team.

Defensively, the Tritons have made 17 errors on the season and has a .947 fielding percentage.

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