Riverside—Vince Fernandez's three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth Saturday evening broke a 5-5 tie, and gave the UC Riverside Baseball Team an 8-5 victory over visiting UC Davis (
listen to Ghizal Hasan's call of the blast).
The win was the second straight for the Highlanders who are 2-0 to begin Big West play for the first time since the 2013 campaign when they started the year with three straight conference victories.
Early on it didn't appear as if UC Riverside (12-13) would need Fernadez's heroics as the Highlanders built a 5-0 lead through the first two innings. UCR took advantage of three Aggies errors during that time, and Fernadez drove in two of the five runs. UC Davis' Justin Mullins settled down after the first two innings, allowing just three hits from the third through the sixth innings, keeping the Aggies in the game.
Highlanders starter Ricky Delgado gave up just four hits in his first six innings of work, but UC Davis (6-15, 0-2) plated a run in the sixth thanks to a pair of UC Riverside miscues. They scored yjtrr more in the top of the seventh as four of the first five batters in the inning reached base, scoring one run, and leaving the bases loaded as Alex Fagalde took over for Delgado.
Cameron Olson was the first hitter to face Fagalde, and he sent a single to right scoring two. Olson tried to take second on the play, but he was thrown out for the second out of the inning. Fagalde got Guillermo Salazar to foul out to UCR third baseman Michael Farris to end the threat, but the Aggies scored the tying run the vary next inning thanks to a single, a stolen base, a fielding error and a passed ball.
Blake Hannah kept UC Riverside in check during his first two-plus innings of relief work, retiring nine in a row at one point. He went out for his third inning of work in the bottom of the ninth, and struck out Drake Zarate for the first out. It was the last out the Aggies would record. Mark Contreras single to right, ending Hannah's night, and Austin Colvin greeted reliever Chris Brown (0-3) with a single to center. Fernandez then worked a 2-2 count before sending Brown's fifth and final offering of the at bat over the right center field wall.
The Highlanders and Aggies complete their three-game series on Sunday, April 3 beginning at 1 pm PT.
