SAN DIEGO – The Highlanders' baseball team fell short of avenging an early season loss to the University of San Diego. The team held a slim lead heading into the bottom of the 8^th inning but weren't able to hold on, falling to the Toreros 7-6.
 
UC Riverside got on the board first with an inning any baseball traditionalist would love to see. Sophomore lead-off man Nathan Webb led the game off with a walk. He was followed up with a single by fellow sophomore Dylan Orick. Senior Dean Miller then grounded out to first advancing the runners. Webb was driven home on a sacrifice fly to center by senior Yeager Taylor.
 
Although the Highlanders only came away with one run in that inning, that's the type of baseball that can get a club headed in the right direction. After the Toreros tied it up in the bottom half of the inning, the Highlanders responded with their own answer in their next at bat.
 
With one out on the board, freshmen Jacob Shanks and Alec Arnone both walked to put runners on first and second. Freshman Damien Sanchez gave the team the lead again with an RBI single to right field with Arnone advancing to third. Webb came up to bat again and hit a sacrifice fly to right to give the Highlanders a 3-1 lead. Another inning of good baseball from the team on the offensive side.
 
The top of fourth was when Riverside struck again with two runs on three hits. Shanks collected a lead-off walk with back-back singles by Arnone and Sanchez, with the latter getting an RBI. Webb continued his productive day with a double to left field for an RBI to push the lead to 5-2.
 
After giving up a couple runs and scoring another themselves, the Highlanders held a 6-4 lead going into the last three innings. Control issues doomed the pitching staff as they walked two and hit one batter in the bottom of the seventh that cut the lead to 6-5.
 
Timely hitting enabled San Diego to tie the game in the eighth. Going into the bottom of the ninth tied 6-6, the Toreros forced the bases loaded and ended the game on a walk-off hit-by-pitch.
 
The Highlanders got solid performance from shortstop Webb who reached base in four out of five at-bats including a sac fly as his only out. Sanchez finished with two hits and a pair of RBIs. Taylor and Shanks both had a pair of walks. Miller saw his nine-game hitting streak snapped in the loss.
 
The team will look to rebound as they come back to conference play for a three-game series at California State University, Northridge. The first game of the set will be played Friday, April 5^th at 3:00pm.