SAN DIEGO – The Utah baseball team was defeated by San Diego on Friday night by an 8-4 score at Fowler Park.
It was Utah's first of three games slated as part of the Tony Gwynn Legacy Tournament. The Utes will face San Diego State on Saturday and Creighton on Sunday, with those remaining two games taking place across town at Tony Gwynn Stadium—on the campus of SDSU.
Daniel Arambula went 2-for-4 with a two-out RBI single and has hit safely in all of Utah's four games this season. Leadoff man
Jet Gilliam drove in a run and scored once, as did fellow outfielder
Luke Jacobs.
Derek Smith also contributed his first double of the season.
The game began as a pitchers' duel as neither club had a hit until the fourth inning. Utah starter
Colter McAnelly struck out the side in the first inning despite a walk and hit batsman, then retired the Toreros in order in the second. In the third, he bounced back from a leadoff walk with two strikeouts and a fly ball as Utah trailed only 1-0 after three innings of play.
Singles from Gilliam and
Jake Long began the top of the fourth for Utah as the Utes took a 2-1 lead. Gilliam would score on a two-out single from Arambula and later on Long snuck home thanks to heads up baserunning.
In the home half of the fourth, USD took advantage of a pair of errors by the Utes on the way to pulling back in front by a 3-2 score. Utah threatened in the top of the fifth with runners in scoring position but USD starter Diego Gutierrez responded with a strikeout to get out of the inning.
The Toreros added insurance in the middle innings through a three-run fifth inning and two more runs in the sixth, swelling the lead to 8-2 as the game headed for the home stretch. Utah would get a run back in both the eighth and ninth innings, but that would be all for the Utes.
McAnelly (1-1) received the loss on the mound for the Utes. The game also marked the pitching debut for both
Justin Abercrombie and
Landon Salvesen.
Next Up
Utah will continue the Tony Gwynn Legacy tournament on Saturday, heading across town to face San Diego State in a game beginning at 6 p.m. MT inside Tony Gwynn Stadium.
Follow Utah Baseball
Keep up with the Utes by following @utahbaseball and by visiting
www.UtahUtes.com. Download the Utah 360 app
here.