Riverside--The UC Riverside Baseball Team was looking to complete a four-game sweep of Holy Cross Tuesday evening, but the Highlanders left 11 men on base, had one runner thrown out at the plate, and the tying run pulled off the board for leaving third too early on a sac fly in a 5-4 loss to the Crusaders.
It was Holy Cross' first win of the season after opening the year with seven straight losses, the last three of which came at the hands of the Highlanders.
It was a back-and-forth affair for the first six innings of play, Tuesday, with both teams wishing they could have taken advantage of additional scoring opportunities.
Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the first, the Highlanders had runners on second and third with one out, when Connor Cannon hit a grounder to short. The Crusaders went home on the play, and gunned down Cody Sporrer in the process to keep the Highlanders off the board.
After UC Riverside (8-4) scored a pair in the bottom of the second to take the lead, Holy Cross tied the score in the top of the third, and had a chance to go back on top. With runners on first and second, Bill Schlich hit a grounder to third, and UCR's Daniel Martinez threw home to nail Austin Masel who tried to score on the play, keeping the game tied.
The Crusaders' (1-7) Thomas Russo broke the tie in the top of the fifth, as he ripped what would turn out to be a double off the right center field wall. Russo thought the ball had cleared the fence, however, and the Highlanders were able to throw him out as his home run trot took him towards third base. Holy Cross did score two runs on the play to take a 4-2 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth, Aaron Cisneros drilled a two-run home run to left to tie the score once again, but Holy Cross went back on top in the next frame, 5-4.
The Highlanders had their next best scoring opportunity in the bottom of the seventh. Cannon and Yeager Taylor opened the frame with back-to-back singles, and Cannon advanced to third on a deep fly out to right center off the bat of Cisneros. Tony Gudino then lifted an apparent sacrifice fly to left, and Cannon slid into home with what UC Riverside assumed was the game-tying run.
The Crusaders appealed at third, claiming Cannon left early, however, and the umpires agreed, calling Cannon out and ending the inning.
Neither team scored over the final three innings of play, as Holy Cross secured its first win of the season.
Trenton Toplikar (2-1) was saddled with the loss for the Highlanders, while George Capen (1-0) was credited with the win after tossing 4.1 inning sof scoreless relief.
UC Riverside hits the road this weekend for a three-game series at Kansas State beginning on Friday, March 10.
