Over the last two months, the University of San Diego baseball team has gone 29-3. Yes, that is 29 wins in 32 games. That is almost unheard of in a game as random as baseball can be. With a run as surprising as that it's not surprising to hear the Toreros are officially going to the NCAA Tournament.
Not that that was in any doubt. USD won the West Coast Conference regular season title outright and was projected to be in the field of 64. But having the automatic bid that goes with winning the WCC Tournament title, which they did with an 8-6 victory over Portland on Saturday afternoon at Las Vegas Ballpark, is a nice little piece of mind.
The Toreros went undefeated over the weekend in Sin City, topping Gonzaga then dropping the Pilots twice to take the crown. The stadium in Vegas is known as one of the game's more hitter-friendly confines. Saturday's game was won with small ball.
All eight of the Toreros hits were singles and they supplemented that with nine walks, two with the bases loaded, to run their winning streak to 10 games (their 2nd double-digit win streak of the season). Their bullpen, as it's been all year, was stellar, allowing two runs over 4.1 innings to make sure any dreams Portland had of a comeback never materialized.
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USD improves its record to 40-13, the first time they've won 40 games since 2012. On Monday the Toreros find out who and where they play in the NCAA Regionals. Projections all have them as a solid #2 seed. What nobody agrees on is where they'll go. Prognosticators are putting them anywhere from Corvallis to Chapel Hill. Wherever they end up, that host will be getting a team that they probably don't want to see.
