Box Score Riverside—After 11 innings, 22 hits and 14 runs, UC Riverside's Friday evening tilt against UC Santa Barbara was ultimately decided on a dropped infield pop up, as the Highlanders rallied for an 8-7 victory.
The Gauchos (18-21, 4-6) tied up the back-and-forth affair with two runs in the top of the eighth, and although the Highlanders put runners in scoring position in the ninth and tenth, it remained a tie game into the 11th.
Steven Ledesma was on for his fourth inning of relief, and gave up a single to Colby Schultz to start the inning. AJ Sawyer moved him into scoring position with a sac bunt, and UC Santa Barbara Head Coach Andrew Checketts countered by intentionally walking the Highlanders' best hitter, Mark Contreras. After Michael Farris lined out to left for the second out, Checketts elected to intentionally walk Cade Peters, loading the bases for freshman Connor Cannon.
Cannon swung at the first pitch he saw, and popped it up down the third base line. It is typically anathema for a pitcher to catch a pop up, but Ledesma called off the rest of his infielders and settled under the ball. Unfortunately for the Gauchos, the ball bounced off the heel of his glove, and fell to the ground, allowing Schultz to come home with the game-winning run.
Angel Landazuri (3-3) picked up the win for the Highlanders tossing three innings of one-hit, no run baseball.
Prior to that extra-inning excitement, the game was divided into two parts—a three-inning slug fest to open the game, and a pitcher's dual which held up over the next eight frames.
UCSB scored in each of the first three innings off of UC Riverside starter Ryan Lillie, as the Highlanders found themselves in an early hole. Cody Sporrer made sure it wasn't a deeper deficit by launching a three run home run over the left field fence in the bottom of the second.
Things got a little chippy between the clubs in the top of third as Lillie missed badly with a pitch to Sam Cohen, throwing a fastball shoulder high and behind the Gauchos DH. Home plate umpire Javier Navarro warned both clubs, and play continued with both dugouts increasing their vocal output. Lillie worked out of the inning, but the Highlanders trailed, 5-3 at that point.
Although UC Santa Barbara starter Kyle Nelson retired the first five batters he faced, the Highlanders (15-22, 3-10) were making good contact throughout, and eight of the next 10 batters reached base, chasing Nelson in the bottom of the third. By that point, UC Riverside led 6-5 thanks to RBI singles in the bottom of the third by Farris, Peters, and Cannon.
Kevin Chandler took over for Nelson and retired the next two hitters to work out of a first-and-third, one out jam. He retired the following three batters before giving up a tough luck triple to Contreras. Contreras laced what looked to be a single to shallow left center to lead off the bottom of the fifth, but center fielder Tommy Jew made an ill-advised dive for the ball and came up short. The ball rolled to the warning track, and by the time left fielder Billy Fredrick got it back into the infield, Contreras was standing on third with his fourth triple in the last two games.
Sawyer then lifted a sac fly to left on an 0-2 pitch, scoring Contreras to put the Highlanders up 7-5.
Lillie retired 11 straight batters from the third through the sixth, but gave up a lead-off single in the seventh to JJ Muno, which caused Head Coach Troy Percival to make the call to the pen, bringing in Nick Shur.
The freshman induced a double play grounder off the bat of Armani Smith, and got Colton Burns to fly out to left to end the inning.
The Gauchos put runners on the corners with one out in the top of the eighth, bringing Jared Morton out of the bullpen. The right-hander struck out Kenny Corey, but gave up a single through the left side to Jew to make it a one-run game. JJ Muno followed with a single to center which plated Cohen tying the game at seven.
UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara play game two of their three-game Big West series on Saturday beginning at 6 pm PT.
