SAN DIEGO, Calif. --- A tight Tuesday night game at Fowler Park between the Anteaters and Toreros came to an unfortunate end with the hosts coming away with the 6-5 victory in 10 innings.

LATE TO THE PARTY
Both offenses took a little longer to find their bats on the night, but San Diego (12-7, 2-1) found theirs first using an error in the third inning to score the opening run on a Cody Jefferis singles to go on top, 1-0. The next inning they strung together some hits and made it 2-0 on a sacrifice fly.

UC Irvine (13-7, 3-0) was stuck in neutral without a baserunner through two innings and hitless into the fifth. A Taishi Nakawake walk to open the sixth inning was followed by a Woody Hadeen single. After a pitching change. Nakawake slid under the tag to score the first run on Nathan Church's sacrifice fly, and then a booming double to left field brought Hadeen around to quickly knot the game up at 2-2.

THROWING HAYMAKERS
The game would swing on two massive blows down the stretch starting in the seventh inning for San Diego.

With one out, the Toreros got a man on from a single, and then a groundball up the middle was snagged by Hadeen, but his flip to second for the force play was mishandled by Nakawake to put two on with one out. The inning continued to power-hitting cleanup hitter Kevin Sim with two outs, and he battled with two strikes before connecting for a three-run home run to swing the lead back to USD, 5-2.

The Anteaters were down to their final outs as the ninth inning began, but started a rally with singles to center field by Ben Fitzgerald and pinch-hitter Myles Smith. Justin Torres came through belting a long, no-doubt home run to right field to tie the game up again at 5-5 and send the night to extra innings.

FINAL SCORE (10): SAN DIEGO 6, UC IRVINE 5
The game ended in the tenth inning with another unfortunate defensive blunder by the Anteaters. The Toreros put a pair of runners on from a single and a walk, and they moved into scoring position on a groundout to first. With two outs, Justin DeCriscio chopped a ball to third base that Dub Gleed leaped to snag, but thinking there was less than two outs decided to come home to get the runner breaking for the plate instead of throwing to first for the third out of the inning. The throw was wide and in came Caleb Ricketts for the game-winning run to give USD the 6-5 victory.

The hard-luck loser on the night was Troy Taylor despite 2.2 fantastic innings of relief, his first loss and decision as an Anteater. Michael Stanford went a career-high four innings allowing one earned run. UCI used five pitchers including Jacob King who allowed the Sim home run, but did not allow any earned runs.

The offense was bolstered by Torres with the only multi-hit effort on the night including the three-run home run, his first of the season.

The loss is the first in the midweek for UCI now 4-1. USD remains spotless in three midweek outings, and have now won the last three meetings in the series. The two will matchup again in May at Anteater Ballpark.

UCI is off to Hawai'i for a three-game set starting Friday, March 25.