Riverside—The UC Riverside Baseball Team had a chance to pull into a tie for second place in the Big West Conference Saturday evening, but CSUN scored a single run in the seventh and five in the ninth to pick up a 7-2 victory.

The Highlanders (19-21, 6-4) staked starter Keaton Leach to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Drake Zarate singled up the middle, and Vince Fernandez put runners at second and third with a double to center. Aaron Cisneros followed with a fielder's choice groundout which scored Zarate.

The Matadors (25-15, 4-10) tied the game up with one swing of the bat in the top of the third as Yusuke Akitoshi led off the inning by turning on a 1-0 offering and sent it over the right field fence.

UC Riverside regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI double to right center that scored Austin Colvin all the way from first.

Leach kept CSUN off the board over the next three innings and retired the first two batters in the seventh. The next two Matadors walked on four and five pitches respectively, however, and Alex Fagalde came on in relief. He got Fred Smith to hit a grounder back up through the box, but neither Fagalde nor his middle infielders could get a glove on it, and Derek Molina, who was pinch running at second, came around to score the tying run.

UC Riverside threatened in the bottom of the seventh, chasing starter Kenny Rosenberg with two outs. Colby Schultz drew a one-out walk and Steven Mercado II beat out an infield single to the left side with two outs, bringing Spencer O'Neil out of the pen.

O'Neil (5-3) issued a free pass to Mark Contreras on four pitches to load the bases, but then induced Zarate to ground out to second ending the threat.

CSUN put together a threat of its own in the top of the eighth, thanks to a Nolan Bumstead single to center and a four-pitch walk to Dylan Alexander, but Fagalde struck out the side to keep the game tied at two. Matadors Head Coach Greg Moore argued the final out, and after a lengthy conversation, was ejected from the game.

The Matadors took their first lead of the series in the top of the ninth off of UCR reliever Ryan Lillie (4-3). Bobby Schuman led off the frame with a walk, and Albee Weiss sacrificed him to second. After an intentional walk to Fred Smith, Elias Orona delivered an RBI single to left to make it 3-2, CSUN.

After Orona stole second, Joe Ruiz walked to load the bases, and Dylan Alexander drew a five-pitch free pass to put the Matadors up two. That brought pitcher Matt Ellis into the game, and he got Justin Toerner to fly out to center field. The ball was hit just deep enough to allow Orona to score on the sac fly. Akitoshi then walked to load the bases, and Branden Berry lifted a bloop single to shallow right that scored a pair for the final runs of the game.

UC Riverside's first two hitters in the ninth reached safely, but O'Neil retired the next three batters to seal the victory.

The Highlanders and Matadors finish their three-game series on Sunday, May 1 beginning at 1 pm PT.