Nick Vilter's 10th Home Run Helps Baseball To 3-2 Win Over Cal State Fullerton

Friday, May 9

Fullerton, CA

7:00 pm

UC Riverside

21-23, 9-7

Cal State Fullerton

24-21, 7-9

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
UC Riverside	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	9	1
Cal State Fullerton	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	8	1

Photo by: Carlos Puma

Nick Vilter's 10th Home Run Helps Baseball To 3-2 Win Over Cal State Fullerton

5/9/2014 9:53:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Fullerton, CA—Nick Vilter crushed his 10th home run of the season while Jake Smigelski scattered seven hits over five innings, and Dylan Stuart extended his string of consecutive innings without allowing an earned run to 20.1 as the Highlanders topped Cal State Fullerton, 3-2, Friday evening.

UC Riverside (21-23, 9-7) provided Smigelski with all the offense he would need in the second and third innings. David Andriese opened the top of the second with a single to center, and Thomas Walker singled up the middle to put runners on the corners. Drake Zarate then laid down a sac bunt that scored Andriese with the first run of the game.

In the top of the third, Devyn Bolasky laced a one-out single to center, and one batter later, Vilter ripped his 10th homer of the season over the left field wall putting the Highlanders up by three (listen to Ghizal Hasan's call of the homer). That ended a streak of 11 straight games without a long ball for the UC Riverside shortstop, as Vilter became the first member of the Highlanders to reach double digits in homers since Tony Nix and Justin Shults each banged 11 over the walls in 2010.

The Titans loaded the bases against Smigelski (7-5) with one out in the bottom of the first, but he induced a double play grounder off the bat of David Olmedo-Barre to get out of the jam.

Cal State Fullerton sliced the UCR advantage to two in the bottom of the third when Clay Williamson led off the inning with a triple to left center, and Tanner Pinkston singled through the left side putting the Titans on the board.

In the bottom of the fifth, a two-out double by J.D. Davis, and a single through the left side by Matt Chapman made it a one-run game.

Smigelski turned the ball over to Stuart to start the sixth, and as he has done for most of the last month, Stuart kept the opposition in check allowing just a single and a walk in his four innings of work, earning his fourth save of the season (listen to Ghizal Hasan's call of the final out of the game). The last time the senior allowed an earned run was on April 12 at Oregon, where Stuart allowed just one run in a five-inning relief appearance.

The Highlanders and Titans play game two of their three-game, Big West Conference series on Saturday beginning at 6 pm PT.