Box Score

LOS ANGELES – Cal State L.A.'s baseball team had its chances – plenty of them, in fact – but came up short in a 14-inning marathon against Cal State Dominguez Hills on Friday night.

 

The Golden Eagles were unable to hold a two-run lead in the bottom of the ninth inning and ultimately fell to the Toros, 11-8, at Reeder Field in a non-conference game between California Collegiate Athletic Association foes.

 

Cal State L.A. (23-18) stranded a whopping 19 runners and hurt itself in the ninth inning by committing an error, two wild pitches and a passed ball during a two-run rally by the Toros that sent the game into extra innings.

 

The Toros then took advantage of a hit batter, a walk and a ground-ball single by Carlos Leyva to break the 8-8 tie in the 14^th. Matt Faigh doubled in a run to make it 10-8 and Kevin Pillar drove in the final run with a bloop single to left.

 

Jacob Valenzuela pitched four scoreless innings for the Golden Eagles, but was charged with three runs in his fifth inning of work – the 14^th – and took the hard-luck loss. He was one of seven pitchers used by Cal State L.A.

 

David Fair, the seventh of seven pitchers used by Cal State Dominguez Hills (19-21), earned the victory by blanking the Golden Eagles over the final 2 2/3 innings.

 

Kamakani Usui worked into the fifth inning in his first start of the season and allowed only solo home runs by Leyva and Abel Medina in the first four innings. Shane Youngdale started for Cal State Dominguez Hills and was touched for eight runs and three runs in 5 2/3 innings.

 

Both teams finished with 19 hits and combined for five errors and 33 left on base.

 

Elliott Russell was 4-for-5 with three runs scored for the Golden Eagles, while Danny Matienzo was 3-for-5 with two RBI. Manny Acosta had three hits and scored twice, while Michael Vinyard had two RBI.

 

Pillar, Medina and Kyle Pond had three hits each for the Toros. Leyva and Pillar drove in two runs each.

 

Cal State Dominguez Hills carried a 6-5 lead into the bottom of the eighth, but Cal State L.A. struck for three runs to take an 8-6 lead. Cliff Quick scored the tying run on a wild pitch and Vinyard delivered a two-run single to give the Golden Eagles the lead.

Cal State Dominguez Hills then tied it with two runs in the ninth off Cal State L.A.'s Gabriel Asakura. With one out, Medina reached on an infield chopper and Jonathan Keener reached when his fly ball in deep center was dropped for an error. Both runners then came around to score on wild pitches to tie the game. Asakura got a strikeout and fly out to end the inning.

 

The teams then battled until the 14^th inning before the Toros broke through to win it.

 

The two teams will play another non-conference game against each other on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Carson.