Riverside—Fresh off of a series victory over the Pac 12's Utah Utes, the UC Riverside Baseball Team returned to The Plex Monday evening to take on Loyola Marymount, but the 23rd-ranked team in the nation held off a number of Highlanders charges to hold on for a 5-3 victory.
The Lions (31-14) won eight of their previous nine games entering the week, and found themselves ranked for the first time since the 2000 campaign. LMU had been off for quite some time, though, as the team didn't play last weekend due to graduation. With the rest, Head Coach Jason Gill opted to give a couple of innings to his weekend starters. LMU's typical Friday hurler, Cory Abbott, brought his 9-1 record and 1.84 to the mound for the first two innings, and he allowed just one hit—a two-out double in the bottom of the first to Mark Contreras.
By the time Abbott turned the ball over to Blake Redman in the third, the Lions' offense had handed him a 2-0 lead. UC Riverside (18-26) starter Trenton Toplikar (2-3) hit two batters, threw a wild pitch, and allowed a double in the first, but was able to keep LMU off the board. He wasn't so fortunate in the second, as he walked Jimmy Hill to lead off the inning, and gave up an RBI triple to Billy Wilson as the Highlanders fell behind, 1-0.
Angel Landazuri came on in relief of Toplikar, and recorded the first two outs of the inning, but the Lions doubled up their lead when Niko Decolati lifted a single to center to plate Wilson.
Landazuri was virtually untouchable over the next four innings, retiring 12 straight at one point.
The Highlanders sliced the Lions lead in half in the bottom of the fourth, when AJ Sawyer laced a double down the right field line to lead off the inning, and Contreras singled through the right side to make it a 2-1 ballgame.
It remained a 2-1 game until the top of the seventh, as LMU started to wear down Landazuri. Wilson doubled down the right field line to open the seventh, and Cooper Uhl sacrificed him to third. That ended Landazuri's night, as he was replaced by Nick Shur.
Phil Caulfield greeted Shur with a single up the middle to put the Lions back up by two, and Decolati followed with a double to right center to tack on an insurance run.
It was a run they would need as Contreras crushed his second home run of the season over the center field wall in the bottom of the eighth, which also scored pinch runner Skyler de los Reyes to make it 4-3 LMU.
Jared Morton tried to keep the lead at one, but the Lions took advantage of a lead off walk in the top of the ninth to go back up by two as Jamey Smart's single to center scored Caulfield.
LMU's closer, Codie Paiva, took the mound in the bottom of the ninth, but Farris ripped the first pitch he saw the wall in center, bringing the tying run to the plate. Paiva settled down, though, striking out pinch hitter Cade Peters, and Matt Hardy before inducing a grounder to short off the bat of pinch hitter Cody Sporrer.
The Highlanders head back out on the road this weekend for a three-game Big West Conference series at UC Davis.
