RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Andrew Rivas drove in four runs on Wednesday night, but UC Riverside (5-4, 0-0 Big West) dropped its first midweek game of the season in a 7-6 defeat to LMU. 

Joshua Torres got the ball for the first time in 2025, striking out the side in the first after the Lions left a runner on third. UCR threatened in the bottom of the frame with bases loaded following a walk to Griffin Harrison. Andrew Rivas walked in the game's first run on the next at bat.  

The Highlanders kept hunting for offense in the second with runners at the corners, thanks to a Robert Pitts single for UCR's first knock of the game. Torres, who finished his first start of the year with 4.0 innings pitched and four strikeouts, escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fourth.  

Offensive floodgates opened in the middle innings with UCR scoring five runs across the fourth and sixth innings. LMU put up four in the fifth and three in the sixth before the Highlanders answered with three in the sixth to cut a four-run deficit to one.  

Manoah Chapman gave the Highlanders continued life in the eighth with a two-out double and Tyler Gordon worked a full-count walk to put two men on, but that's as much offense as UCR could muster until the bottom of the ninth.  

Riverside native Matt Hudson staved off any further damage in the top of the ninth, stranding two Lions on the base path.  

UCR kicks off a busy weekend on Friday, February 28 with a 6:00 p.m. first pitch at California Baptist in the Crosstown Showdown.