Baseball | 5/15/2009 9:56:13 PM

Box Score [Box score]

SALEM-KEIZER, Ore. - No. 2 nationally ranked UC San Diego belted a season-high 24 hits and put themselves in the tournament driver's seat with an 18-3 victory in the winner's bracket game on Friday night in the NCAA Division II west regional at Volcanoes Stadium.

No. 18 Western Oregon now drops into a loser's out game at 11 am on Saturday against Sonoma State. The winner of that contest will play the Tritons at 3 pm. Sonoma State was a 7-6 victor earlier today over Cal State Dominguez Hills, eliminating the Toros.

UCSD scored in every inning except the second and the ninth in cruising to the victory. But the true onslaught didn't start until the fourth, when the two clubs were tied at 2-2. With one out and nobody on base, the Tritons mashed six consecutive hits, four of them for extra bases to plate four runs. That included back-to-back home runs by Matt Cantele and Kellen Lee.

The Tritons would go right back to work in the fifth inning with four more runs and would add three in the sixth. A number of their hits came with two strikes in the count and many of their runs came with two outs.

“We couldn't put them away and they continued to make us pay for that all night,” said Wolves head coach Jeremiah Robbins. “We need to put this behind us and start the season again tomorrow.”

Vance Albitz had four hits in the game for the visitors, as did Josh Tanner. The Tritons had seven doubles in the contest, and had home runs from Cantele, Lee and Garrett Imeson. Lee and Imeson drove in four runs apiece as UCSD improved to 38-12.

Meanwhile, Western Oregon's bats were not silent by any means. The Wolves had 17 hits in the contest, but only three scores. They stranded 11 runners (so did the Tritons), had two players picked off first, and were the victims of two UCSD double plays.

Freshman Thomas McCarthy had four hits in five trips to the plate to raise his school record-breaking single season average to .465. Travis Fox, Garrett Breda and Bill Clontz had two base knocks apiece for WOU, who dropped to 34-13 with the loss.

“We haven't experienced a loss like this all year,” McCarthy said. “But we have to re-focus and be mentally ready to go tomorrow. It is a whole new day.”