Riverside—Four straight wins, three straight ninth-inning comebacks, two straight walk-off victories, and one of the most unusual baseball games you'll ever see. That's what UC Riverside Baseball fans have witnessed over the past week, and Long Beach State was on the receiving end for the second straight night in a 14-13 Highlanders win.

That a game started by Dirtbags sophomore Darren McCaughan could feature 27 runs, 29 hits and nine errors would have seemed unimaginable prior to Saturday. In his first nine starts of the season, the right-hander allowed just 15 runs, 12 of them earned, en route to a 6-1 record and a 1.78 ERA.

But the Highlanders (17-19, 5-3) pounded out 11 hits against McCaughan, plating nine runs to lead 9-4 through six innings of play.

Ricky Delgado allowed four runs in his five innings of work, before turning the game over to the bullpen. Keaton Leach pitched a scoreless sixth, but the Dirtbags (21-16, 5-6) began mounting a comeback in the top of the seventh. LBSU scored two runs in the seventh and four in the eighth to overtake UCR, 10-9.

The advantage was short-lived, however, as UC Riverside countered with four runs of its own in the bottom of the eighth to go up, 13-10.

Long Beach State wasn't done, though, as the Highlanders needed three pitchers to get through the top of the ninth, and by the time the dust settled, the game was tied at 13. UC Riverside was also down its skipper at that point as Troy Percival was ejected for arguing with the home plate umpire when the Dirtbags were credited with the tying run.

With runners on second and third and just one out, the Highlanders induced a sharp grounder to third, and appeared to have Jarren Duran dead to rights at the plate. Duran got into a run down between third and home, however, but it eventually spilled over to include Zach Domingues, who was caught between second and third. After nearly a dozen throws between the bases, Duran sprinted for home again, and UCR third baseman Michael Farris tried to apply the tag. Home plate umpire Don Crane called Duran out.

Long Beach State's coaches swarmed Crane arguing that Farris missed the tag, and after consulting with the other two umpires for an extended period of time, Crane reversed the call, which brought Percival racing out of the Highlanders dugout. It was an argument, that Percival was not going to win, and after a prolonged discussion, he was politely asked to leave the premises.

UC Riverside still had three outs in its arsenal, and Michael Farris led off the bottom of the ninth with a double down the left field line. Mark Contreras advanced him to third with a sacrifice bunt, and the Dirtbags intentionally walked Drake Zarate and Vince Fernandez to load the bases and set up a force at any base. That brought Yeager Taylor to the plate, and the Dirtbags brought an extra infielder into the game in an effort to cut off the winning run.

The plan didn't work, however, as Taylor laced a single to right center, sending the Highlanders pouring out onto the field for the second sraight evening.

UC Riverside and the Dirtbags complete their three-game Big West Conference series on Sunday beginning at 1 pm PT.