LONG BEACH – USD junior left-hander Brian Matusz took a deep breath as he took the mound for yesterday's NCAA Tournament game against Cal, exhaled and went to work.
It was the Toreros' fans at Blair Field who had to hold their breath all game.
Matusz dueled with Cal starter Tyson Ross for much of the afternoon before No. 7-ranked USD broke through for a 5-0 victory in the opening game of the Long Beach Regional.
“We knew the first one to give an inch, it was probably going to be a big one,” said Cal coach David Esquer. “We gave them a little too much, and in a game like today that's enough to get you beat.”
USD second baseman Kevin Hansen threw a runner out at the plate in the fifth inning to preserve a scoreless tie. Toreros shortstop Sean Nicol hit a booming two-out double in the sixth to bring home the first run. And the Toreros batted around in a four-run seventh inning to put it away.
Matusz (12-2) was once again outstanding, tossing a three-hitter with 10 strikeouts. More than two dozen scouts in the stands watched Matusz take over the national lead in strikeouts this season (138) as well as become USD's career leader in strikeouts (397) in his final start before Thursday's major league draft. He is expected to be selected among the first five picks.
“In this type of environment and this type of stage, to do what he did was amazing,” said USD coach Rich Hill. “This was probably his best outing since he's been here at USD. That's the real story of the day.”
There were others.
First, what it meant to the program:
This is USD's first glimpse at the winners' bracket. The Toreros were 0-4 in their previous postseason openers.
USD (42-15) plays Fresno State (38-27) tonight at 6, with the winner advancing to the regional final. The Bulldogs defeated tournament host Long Beach State 7-3 last night.
“We really want to stay focused on one rung of the ladder at a time, and this is the first one,” said Hill. “Now the next step is to play in a regional final, and we're excited about that from the results side of things.”
Hansen stood out in the field as much as Matusz did on the mound.
It appeared Cal was going to grab the lead in the fifth when Blake Smith led off the inning with a double and was sacrificed to third. Hansen came up throwing on a grounder by Mark Canha and USD catcher Nick McCoy made sure Smith never reached the plate.
“That was the turning point of the game right there,” said Matusz.
Hansen wasn't done.
In the seventh, he jumped to snag a liner by Cal's Brett Jackson that would have found the alley in right-center for extra bases.
In the eighth, he ranged behind the second base bag to get a chopper hit by Cal's Jeff Kobernus and made a strong, off-balance throw to first base to end the inning.
Hansen took one for the team in between, getting hit with a pitch that brought home a run and extended USD's four-run seventh. Logan Gelbrich got it started with a liner to left that went off the glove of Cal's Charlie Cutler for a two-base error. USD's Jose Valerio and McCoy followed with RBI doubles. Josh Romanski completed the rally with an RBI single.
Romanski's focus will be on the mound tonight. He gets the start against Fresno State as the Toreros reach for the next rung on that ladder.
