Riverside—Three UC Riverside pitchers combined to strike out 13 batters Friday evening at The Plex, but North Dakota also touched the Highlanders for 11 hits and five runs in a 5-2 UND victory.
UCR starter Angel Landazuri (1-3) gave up his first hit with two outs in the top of the second as North Dakota's number seven hitter, Daniel Lockhert singled to left. Brett Harrison singled through the right side to put runners at first and third, and Cooper Maas singled to right center to put the Highlanders in a 1-0 hole.
UC Riverside had baserunners in each of the first three innings, but failed to score until the bottom of the fourth. Jordan Abernathy doubled down the left field line and move to third on a Vince Fernandez ground out. Tony Gudino then doubled to right to tie the score.
Meawhile, Landazuri struck out eight batters through five to keep North Dakota in check. All that changed in the top of the sixth, as the first two batters of the inning singled through the infield. A sac bunt moved both runners up 90 feet, and Sam Alt's single to center put North Dakota back on top, 2-1. Lockhert followed with a single through the left side to put UND up by two.
The Highlanders (7-11) got one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning as Vince Fernandez turned on a one-out, 0-2 offering, sending the ball over the right field wall and North Dakota starter Reid Jungling (1-0) to the showers. Ellery Bresnahan came on in relief and ended the inning with back-to-back ground outs.
Landazuri (1-3) was still on the mound in the top of the seventh, but North Dakota put the lead-off runner on base for the second straight inning. After a ground out moved Zach Heaser to second, the Highlanders elected to intentionally walk Jeff Campbell to face Ryan Reese. It seemed like the play to make as Campbell entered the game hitting .436 and Reese clocked it at .250. Reese does have power, however, with two home runs on the season.
Although Reese didn't clear the fence on this occasion, he did double to right scoring Heaser. That ended Landazuri's night, as Jesus Gonzalez came out of the pen. Gonzalez got Dalton Leuschke to fly out to right, but it was deep enough to score Campbell with North Dakota's fifth run of the game.
The Highlanders threatened in the bottom of the seventh putting runners on first and second with one out thanks to a pair of walks, but a double play grounder ended the threat.
Bresnahan struck out the side in the bottom of the eight, and after Tony Gudino drew a walk to start the bottom of the ninth, handed the game over to Campbell. Robby Witt reached on an error to put runners on first and second, but another double play grounder and a pop up to third gave North Dakota the win.
UC Riverside and North Dakota play game two of their three-game series on Saturday beginning at 6 pm PT at The Plex.
