Long Beach, CA—The UC Riverside Baseball Team was limited to three hits Friday evening, as the Highlanders dropped game one of their three-game series at #19 Long Beach State, 8-0.

The Dirtbags' (18-11) Darren McCaughan kept UCR off-balance, striking out 13 batters, and walking none over eight innings, in picking up his third win of the season against two defeats.

McCaughan's counterpart, Alex Fagalde (5-1) was looking for his league-leading sixth win of the year, but the Dirtbags jumped on him for three runs in the first inning, as five of the first six batters reached via singles.

A Laine Huffman homer to left to lead off the bottom of the second made it a 4-0 game, but Fagalde settled down in the third and fourth allowing just one base runner. 

Long Beach State tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the fifth, though, as Ramsey Romano drove in his third, fourth and fifth runs of the day with a bases-clearing double.

Matt Hardy tossed a scoreless sixth and seventh for UC Riverside (12-13), but the Dirtbags began their half of the eighth with a single and a walk, ending Hardy's stint. Michael Farris took over, and gave up a sac fly to Brock Lundquist for the final run of the game.

The Highlanders and Dirtbags play game two of their three-game series Saturday beginning at 2 pm PT.