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LA JOLLA, Calif. – Jake Spillane retired seven straight Tritons at one point of Friday's series opener in La Jolla, California, and allowed only one hit through his first five innings on the mound in his team's inaugural Big West Conference head-to-head game against UC San Diego.
 
From the opening pitch, UC Davis quickly frustrated the Tritons by scoring three runs in the first inning, and eventually pushed that lead to five after scoring once in the second and again in the fifth.

Even though UCSD scored a run in the seventh and eighth innings, Zach Carrell earned his first career save by silencing the Tritons' seventh-inning rally to help the Aggies begin their weekend in San Diego with a 5-2 win.
 
Spillane enjoyed one of his strongest outings of the season by allowing five hits through 6.2 innings, fanned three and only walked a pair of batters to collect his third victory of the season.
 
UC Davis will return to Triton Ballpark for Saturday's 12 p.m. doubleheader with a 13-33 overall and 7-22 Big West record, UCSD falls to 15-26 and 12-17 with Friday's result.
 
After Jalen Smith opened the game with a leadoff single, Cooper Morrison and Jake Brandel also reached base safely with back-to-back singles; the latter, combined with a Triton error on the play, allowed Smith to score.
 
With Aggies on second and third, a grounder from Colton Evans to short and another from Spencer Gedestad to second allowed Morrison and Brandel to touch the plate, capping a strong start for the visitors since they led 3-0 before UCSD took its first swing of the day.
 
A leadoff double from Arenado in the second inning turned into another UC Davis run when he scored on a wild pitch, which took place after Nick Iverson dropped a perfect sacrifice bunt that allowed his teammate to advance another 90 feet.
 
As was the case with its previous two scoring opportunities, UC Davis opened action in the fifth with a leadoff hit. This time, it was Morrison's single to right center that started his trip around the bases since he stole second, advanced to third on Evans' grounder to short, and scored on a Gedestad single.
 
Even though UCSD scored in the bottom of the sixth on two hits — it recorded only one hit throughout the first six frames — it was a solo shot in the following inning that led to its most dangerous rally of the afternoon.
 
Entering the game with two outs in the Tritons' half of the seventh, Carrell struckout Aaron Kim and forced the team's top power hitter to strand a pair of runners on second and third.

Carrell came up clutch once again in UCSD's half of the ninth, with two out already recorded, when he struckout Tate Soderstrom with Tritons on second and third.
 
In addition to live stats, ESPN3 will stream both games of Saturday's 12 p.m. twinbill. Aggie baseball fans can watch the first and second games by clicking respective links.
 

 
 
ABOUT UC DAVIS
Centrally located between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, over 700 student-athletes across 25 teams enjoy an unrivaled undergraduate experience at the fifth-ranked public school in the country. 
 
Ranked annually in the nation's top 10 in diversity and students' social mobility, UC Davis and its innovative Aggie EVO System helps student-athletes develop passions, connect with a comprehensive network of alums and industry leaders, gain real-world experience and thrive as a young professional following a successful launch to full-time employment or graduate school.