GWANGJU, Korea - Cal State Fullerton, representing the USA, used a five-run eighth inning to surge past Mexico 7-3 Thursday afternoon in the final game of Group B play at the World University Games.
USA will advance to the medal round as the No. 2 seed in Group B and will face Group A winner Japan Friday at noon KT after Chinese Taipei secured the top seed in Group B with a 5-3 win over Czech Republic on Thursday. That will be 8 p.m. on July 9 back in Fullerton and the game will be live streamed on FISU Livesport (www.livefisu.tv).
Timmy Richards led the USA offense as he went 3-for-4 with a run scored and a walk. Chris Hudgins and Taylor Bryant each had two hits and were part of nine players that recorded a base hit on Thursday.
Maxwell Gibbs picked up the win for the USA as he tossed two innings of hitless relief. He walked two and struck out four.
Mexico capitalized on some defensive miscues to take an early lead in the first inning. Rene Chavez led off with a walk against USA starter Josh Rios and then Luis Marchena laid down a sacrifice bunt. Rios overran the ball and then Bryce Brooks threw the ball away, allowing Chavez to score and Marchena to advance to second. He would later come in to score in the inning to put Mexico up 2-0 early.
It stayed that way until the fourth inning when the USA mounted a two-out rally. Brooks walked and then Taylor Bryant tripled to the gap in right-center to plate Brooks. Tanner Pinkston followed with a single to shallow center to bring in Bryant and tie the game 2-2.
The teams traded zeroes until the eighth inning when the USA took the lead. Dalton Blaser singled up the middle and then Timmy Richards added another single to move Blaser to third. Brooks walked to load the bases and Taylor Bryant came through with a sacrifice fly to right field to bring in the run and make it 3-2 USA. Tanner Pinkston then hit a ground ball to first and Oscar Zevada elected to come home with the throw to try and get the out at the plate, but the throw was high and everyone was safe including Richards at the plate for a 4-2 edge.
Josh Vargas was next up and drilled a triple to right field to clear the bases and put the USA ahead 6-2. Tristan Hildebrandt capped off the inning with a sacrifice fly to left to score Vargas and make it 7-2 and the USA never looked back.
