LOS ANGELES – Cal State L.A.'s baseball team dropped its final home game of the 2008 season and then set it sights on its task at hand.

 

The Golden Eagles fell to Point Loma Nazarene, 5-3, in a non-conference game Tuesday at Reeder Field. Cal State L.A. (25-22) rallied to tie the game in the eighth inning, but Point Loma scored a pair of unearned runs in the ninth to pull out the win.

 

Cal State L.A. will now conclude the regular season with a four-game California Collegiate Athletic Association series at San Francisco State. The Golden Eagles are in fifth place in the CCAA and most likely need a sweep over the Gators to have a shot at making the four-team CCAA Championship Tournament, which Cal State L.A. has hosted the past two years. The Golden Eagles would then have to hope that either Chico State loses twice at Cal State San Bernardino or Cal State Stanislaus loses twice at Cal Poly Pomona to get in. A loss to San Francisco State would mean the Wildcats or Warriors would have to lose three times for the Golden Eagles to get into the tourney.

 

Six Cal State L.A. pitchers saw action on Tuesday. Manny Urresti didn't allow a hit in two innings, Dustin Birosak struck out three in his one inning, Theon Bourdaniotis blanked Point Loma for two innings and then surrendered a three-run home run to Tyler Kuehl in the sixth inning, Nathan Pickett and Ryan Plum pitched scoreless innings and Devon Ramirez gave up a pair of unearned runs in the ninth.

 

Point Loma (28-20) used four pitchers. Chris Honer worked the first five innings and gave up six hits and a run. Kevin Soares pitched one scoreless inning, Kaohi Downing gave up an unearned run in the seventh and Robbie Naegele gave up the tying run in the eighth inning before working a scoreless ninth inning to pick up the win.

 

Cal State L.A. took a 1-0 lead in the second. Christian Ramirez, who was named the CCAA Player of the Week after hitting .692 in last week's four-game series vs. Cal Poly Pomona, walked, stole second and scored on a run-scoring single by Henry Contreras.

 

That lead held up until the sixth when Andy Reilly and Kurt Steinhauer collected two-out singles ahead of Kuehl's second home run of the year.

 

The Golden Eagles cut the deficit to 3-2 in the seventh when Devon Ramirez walked, took second on a passed ball and scored on a run-scoring single by Max Moya. Cal State L.A. tied the game in the eighth inning when Christian Ramirez walked, moved to second on a sacrifice by Kenny Shanahan, took third on a groundout and scored on a single by Eric Quintero.

 

Downing scored the go-ahead run in the ninth on an error and Jon Tierney added a run-scoring single later in the inning to give Point Loma its 5-3 edge.

 

Cal State L.A. will open its big four-game series at San Francisco State with a single game on Friday. The series will continue with a doubleheader on Saturday and conclude with a single game on Sunday.