Riverside—The UC Riverside Baseball Team got a six-inning, four-hit performance out of starter Austin Sodders, and three combined innings of shutout relief from Keaton Leach and Jared Morton as the Highlanders upended visiting New Mexico State, 8-2 Friday evening.

Sodders struck out seven of the first nine batters he faced and took a shutout into the fifth inning as UC Riverside won for the third time in its last four outings. By the time the Aggies dented the scoreboard, Sodders teammates had staked him to a 4-0 lead.

Austin Colvin's infield single in the bottom of the second scored Cameron Haskell with the Highlanders' first run of the game, and UC Riverside plated two more in the third on RBI singles by Casey Worden and Colby Schultz. Mark Contreras gave the Highlanders a four-run cushion with an RBI single in the fourth, raising his team-high runs batted in total to 13.

The Aggies took advantage of a UCR miscue in their half of the fifth as a single and an error put Joseph Koerper at second, and a wild pitch and sacrifice fly ended the shutout bid.

The Highlanders got that run back and more in their half of the fifth when Vince Fernandez laced a single to left center with the bases loaded scoring a pair to make it 6-1 UCR.

Sodders gave up another run in the top of the sixth, and after Koerper doubled to left center to open the seventh, Head Coach Troy Percival made the call to the bullpen. Leach pitched two scoreless innings, and the Highlanders scored two more runs in the bottom of the seventh thanks to two Aggies errors.

Morton took the ball in the to of the ninth and retied New Mexico State in order to secure the victory.

The Highlanders and Aggies play game two of their three-game series on Saturday, March 19 beginning at 1 pm PT