San Luis Obispo, CA—Senior Alex Fagalde saved his best for last Saturday afternoon, tossing a complete-game, four-hitter as the Highlanders closed out the 2017 season with a 4-0 victory over Cal Poly.

Fagalde (7-4) faced just five batters over the minimum, retiring 15 straight Mustangs at one point. His counterpart, Trent Shelton, nearly matched him pitch for pitch, allowing just four hits through his first six innings of work.

AJ Sawyer picked up the biggest hit of the night, drilling a 3-1 offering over the left field wall to lead off the seventh, and put the Highlanders (22-32, 8-16) up 1-0.

Cal Poly (28-28, 16-8) went to the bullpen in the eighth, and UC Riverside jumped on Michael Clark in the ninth, tacking on three insurance runs. Sawyer led off the inning with a walk, advancing to third on a passed ball and a wild pitch. Ian Nowak brought him home with a triple to right center, and Yeager Taylor's double to left center made it a 3-0 ballgame. Tony Gudino's single down the right field line ended the scoring for the night.

It was the first shutout of the year for the Highlanders, whose last scoreless effort came in the team's 2016 season-ending, 6-0 victory over #19 UC Santa Barbara. It also marked the first time a UC Riverside pitched has tossed a complete-game shutout since Dylan Stuart kept Cal State Fullerton off the board in a 1-0 win on May 20, 2012.

Fagalde led the Highlanders' starting pitchers on the year with seven wins, a 3.39 ERA and a .239 opponent batting average.

Mark Contreras picked up two more hits in the win over the Mustangs, and finished his 2017 season leading the team in all three slash line categories—.366/.427/.558. His batting average is the highest for a member of the Highlanders since the NCAA changed the composition of the bats to reduce scoring prior to the 2011 season.