TRITONS BASEBALL OPENS UP THE SEASON WITH A WIN

LA JOLLA, Calif. – The second-ranked UC San Diego baseball team kicked off a new era on a winning note Friday, defeating Western Oregon 4-1 in its season opener at Triton Ballpark.

Senior outfielder Aaron Bauman went 2-for-2 at the plate and scored a pair of runs, while senior right-hander Tim Shibuya tossed seven strong innings to lead the defending national finalists to their first regular season victory under the newly-installed lights at UCSD’s baseball facility.

While the lights were on for the Tritons’ exhibition wins over Point Loma Nazarene and San Diego Christian College the past week, Friday’s contest was for keeps and UCSD (1-0) sent the raucous crowd of well-over 300 home happy.

The Tritons jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back, taking advantage of five Western Oregon (0-1) errors en route to their first of many victories to come this season.

“It was awesome out there tonight,” two-time national coach of the year Dan O’Brien said. “To have a night game and get our first official win under the lights, I just can’t say enough about it and as an alumni I’m very proud. And we beat a really good team that didn’t make some plays tonight and gave us an opportunity to score some runs.”

A throwing error by the Wolves’ third baseman led to a pair of runs for UCSD in the bottom of the first, as Bauman and Kyle Saul came home on the play. Bauman hit a lead off single to get things started, while Saul was hit by a pitch from WOU starter Grady Wood.

Working with an early 2-0 lead, Shibuya was absolutely dominant early on, retiring 11 straight at one point. The 2010 ABCA First Team All-American struck out the side in the fourth inning and finished with a total of six strikeouts in the game.

UCSD would add a run in the fifth, as Bauman scored on Saul’s single up the middle, and consecutive WOU errors to begin the seventh led to the Tritons’ final run of the evening.

Saul finished 1-for-3 with a run scored, while Nick Hom was 1-for-3 with a double and a run, as well.

Grant Glover, Aaron Headrick and Austin Potter finished with two hits apiece for the Wolves.

Shibuya, a 13-game winner a year ago, allowed five hits and walked one to pick up the victory for the Tritons. He found himself in trouble just once all evening, when Glover and Headrick hit back-to-back singles to start the sixth and Daniel Dillard followed with a sacrifice fly to plate Western Oregon’s only run.

“You’re just going to get the same thing out of Tim every single game,” O’Brien continued. “Team’s try to take different approaches against him and the bottom line is he just pounds the strike zone and he doesn’t get rattled. He took care of business tonight and that’s what we’ve come to expect from him every time he takes the mound.”

Elias Tuma pitched a scoreless eighth inning in relief, while Jeff Rauh worked a perfect ninth to record the save.

Wood took the loss for the Wolves, allowing four runs, two earned, on five hits in seven innings of work.