Riverside—The UC Riverside Baseball Team pushed four runs across in the bottom of the first Friday evening, and and held on for a 6-4 victory over visiting CSUN.

Five of the first six batters reached for the Highlanders (19-20, 6-4) to start the game, and by the time the dust settled UC Riverside had sent nine men to the plate and put four runs on the board. UCR was aided by a pair of uncharacteristic miscues by the CSUN defense. The Matadors entered the game with the best fielding percentage in the Big West at .980, but they failed to handle a sacrifice bunt and a grounder to short, which made three of the four runs unearned.

The Highlanders added a fifth run in the second, thanks in part to a passed ball. CSUN (24-15, 3-10) starter Angel Rodriguez maintained his composure, tossing six complete, striking out six and walking one to keep the game close.

Meanwhile, Austin Sodders (4-3) struggled a bit with his command walking five in 5+ innings of work, but he gave up just three hits and two runs to pick up his fourth win of the season.

Ricky Delgado pitched three innings of relief before turning the game over to Ryan Lillie in the top of the ninth with two runners on, and nobody out. The sophomore got Fred Smith to hit into a fielder's choice which put runners on the corners, before giving up back-to-back singles to make the score 6-3, and loading the bases. A Justin Toerner sac fly made it a two-run ballgame, but Dylan Alexander lifted a fly ball to right center which Vince Fernandez put away for the final out of the game.

UC Riverside plated their sixth and final run in the bottom of the eighth, once again with some assistance from the Matadors as a wild pitch figured into pinch runner Cameron Haskell's journey around the bases.

The win is the sixth in the last seven games for the Highlanders who moved to 4-0 in Friday night conference games.

UC Riverside and CSUN play game two of their three-game series on Saturday, April 30 beginning at 6 pm PT.