RIVERSIDE, Calif. – UC Riverside hosted Utah Tech this afternoon for the season opener. Last year, these two teams met in Utah with the Highlanders taking three of four.
The season's first start went to lefty
Matthew O'Brien. Last year the southpaw made 20 appearances with 12 starts. He threw a team high 62.2 innings with 49 strikeouts.
In the top of the first the Trailblazers struck first. It all started with a leadoff single by Kyle McDaniel and he moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt by Kace Naone. McDaniel later scored on a single by Ryan Kroepel. They then loaded the bases, but O'Brien was able to escape the jam and Utah Tech held a 1-0 lead.
The Highlanders tied the game up in the bottom of the second when
Manoah Chapman doubled to center scoring
David Gibbs from first.
In the top of the fourth the Trailblazers took the lead again on a bunt single by McDaniel that scored Petey Soto Jr. The Highlanders again knotted the game up in the bottom of the frame when
Andrew Rivas scored on a single to left by Chapman.
Utah Tech broke the tie in the top of the sixth when McDaniel got on board with a walk. McDaniel then moved over to third on an error by
Robert Pitts in right center. He eventually scored on an RBI groundout Kroepel making it 3-2.
Matthew O'Brien was lifted in the seventh after Miller Durham's leadoff double and
Marco DiGirolamo made his season debut. The Trailblazers made it 4-2 in the top of the seventh as Durham scored on a sacrifice fly by Hudson Manwaring. They extended their lead to 5-2 on an RBI double by Soto Jr. The Trailblazers ended up pushing six across in the inning to take a 9-2 lead.
In the bottom of the inning UCR got two of those runs back. Jaren Sanderson collected his first hit and first two RBIs as a Highlander making it 9-4.
Then in the eighth the Trailblazers got those two runs back and ended up scoring three.
Utah Tech took a 12-4 lead into the ninth and UCR had the top of the order.
Robert Pitts struck out looking and
David Whittle followed with his first hit of the year, a single to right. Sanderson then tripled off the wall in center scoring Whittle making it 12-5. Bonham then stuck out to end the game.
Games two and three are tomorrow starting at 11am.
