San Diego baseball lost its final midweek matchup of the 2026 season on May 5 at Fowler Park, falling to UC Irvine by a score of 9-4.
The Toreros built an early lead, going up 4-0 after two innings. CJ Moran drew a leadoff walk in the first inning, extending his streak of reaching base safely to 29 times in the last 31 games. A double by Gage Mestas and a two-out throwing error allowed San Diego to take advantage early. In the second inning, Nico Button walked and later scored on a Cade Martinez RBI double. Moran then brought Martinez home with a sacrifice fly before Andrew Gauna drove in another run with a bloop single down the right field line.
After a fourth-inning single from Button, San Diego managed only one hit and two walks for the rest of the game. The team used a season-high eleven pitchers during the contest. Caleb Sebek started for San Diego and threw one scoreless frame along with Chaz McRoberts. Although Nate DeSchryver allowed a two-run home run in the third inning, Kyle Bade, AÃdan Gonzalez, and Logan Piper kept UC Irvine off the board through five innings.
UC Irvine took control with a three-run home run in the sixth inning and added insurance runs in both the seventh and eighth innings. Reece Bueno finished out pitching duties for San Diego by recording five outs without allowing any runs despite letting two runners reach base in the ninth.
Several players reached personal milestones during this game: Gauna has now registered at least one hit in eighteen of his last nineteen games; Mestas is hitting .333 over his last eleven games; Phoenix Brant notched his third double over two games; Button reached base twice after returning to starting lineup; Bueno pitched his longest outing yet as a Torero uniform.
San Diego will next travel to Stockton for its penultimate series of the regular season against University of Pacific beginning Friday at Klein Family Field. The three-game series will be streamed live on ESPN+. The Toreros return home May 14-16 for their final regular season series against Loyola Marymount.
