IRVINE, Calif.— The UC Riverside Baseball Team (19-29, 7-13) bounced back from a game one loss dropping UC Irvine (30-22, 6-14) 7-1 in game two Saturday afternoon to even the series. UCR got the bats going out-hitting the Anteaters 10-2.

Sophomore Trenton Toplikar took the bump against the Anteaters and was truly dominant tossing seven shutout innings and allowing just two hits and one walk, while striking out four to pick up the win for the Highlanders. 

The Highlanders struck first scoring seven in three innings. Freshman Dylan Orick led off the 4th with a single to right center on a full count and was moved to 3rd on a Connor Cannon double, the sophomore's 2nd of the weekend.

Junior Yeager Taylor would give UCR its first run of the day on a sac-fly and junior Matt Hardy gave the Highlanders a 2-0 lead on an RBI single up the middle. Freshman Robert Cruz added another in the 5th on an RBI single to left center to extend the lead 3-0.

UCR did its most damage in the top of the 6th as the Highlanders scored four more runs thanks to another RBI single from Hardy and a 2 RBI triple from Cruz. Hardy and Cruz were true offensive leaders for their team combining for four hits and five RBI.

The Anteaters answered in the 8th with a run of their own but the Highlanders would hold on to tie series.

The rubber match is scheduled for tomorrow at 1:00 PM in Irvine, Ca.