(Keizer, Oregon) – First baseman Tyson Littlewood provided the biggest offensive spark with a grand slam and hurler Mike Dedrick tossed a quality start as Dixie State College defeated UC San Diego 7-3 in the opening game of the NCAA II West Baseball Regional at Volcanoes Stadium.

The Red Storm (33-18) advance in the no-loss bracket to face the winner of the Western Oregon and Chico State game on Thursday night.

“We played a clean game,” said DSC head coach Mike Littlewood. “The purpose was to win and we did a good job against a good-hitting team.”

The Red Storm picked up a run in the first inning without a base hit. A pair of walks and a UCSD error on a sacrifice bunt attempt set up the run. Joe Andrade hit a deep sacrifice fly to center to plate Jordan Hanley for the early lead.

Another UC San Diego Triton miscue in the third allowed Garrett Nash to score. A foul pop-up to the first base side travelled far enough for Nash to tag from second and Cedric Johnson to follow from first. The throw from foul territory toward second base struck Johnson and scooted into shallow left field. Nash rounded third and came home on the error.

Littlewood’s home run blast (6) to left field in the home half of the fifth inning pushed the lead to 6-0.

“He threw me a changeup first,” Tyson said. “I knew he was coming back with fastball and I got a good swing on it.”

UCSD got a solo home run from Nick La Face with two outs in the sixth and got to Dedrick for a run in the seventh before lading the bags. Kyle DiMartino came into the game and struck out Garrett Tuck to stymie the threat.

Johnson lifted a solo shot (6) to right field in the seventh inning put the Storm up 7-2.

DSC closer Daniel Zapata allowed an earned run to the Tritons in the ninth, but induced La Face to fly out into the glove of Hanley in left field to close the game.

Dedrick earned the victory after allowing two runs on hits over 6.2 innings. He struck out one and walked two.

The Tritons outhit the Red Storm eight to seven, but DSC scored a pair of unearned runs thanks to two UCSD errors.

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Dixie State 7, UC San Diego 3

UC San Diego........ 000 001 101 - 3 8 2 (32-23)

Dixie State......... 101 040 10X - 7 7 0 (33-18)

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Pitchers:

UC San Diego - Trevor Scott; Justin Burns (7) and Nick La Face

Dixie State - Mike Dedrick; Kyle DiMartino (7); Daniel Zapata(9) and Joe Andrade

Win-Mike Dedrick (6-4) Loss-Trevor Scott (5-6)

Home runs

UCSD - Nick La Face (5).

DSC - Cedric Johnson (6); Tyson Littlewood (6)