Box Score SAINT GEORGE, UTAH -- Cal State L.A.'s baseball team saw its hard-earned trip to the NCAA Division II playoffs come to an unsatisfying end Friday at Bruce Hurst Field.

The Golden Eagles were limited to just three hits by Cal State Monterey Bay in an elimination game and fell to the Otters, 8-1, on the campus of Dixie State College. Cal State L.A. (35-22), after tearing through the California Collegiate Athletic Association Championship Tournament last week to earn the conference's automatic bid to the playoffs, was held to just three runs and 10 hits in its two NCAA playoff games.

The Golden Eagles certainly didn't get any breaks when it came to the tournament draw. As the No. 5 seed, the Golden Eagles drew No. 2 seed Sonoma State and one of the nation's top pitchers, Harmen Sidhu, in the opener. Then, after No. 1 seed Cal State Monterey Bay's loss to Chico State on Thursday, the Golden Eagles had to face another of the conference's top pitchers, Jeff Owen, who improved to 12-1 with a complete-game win over the Golden Eagles on Friday.

Simply put, outstanding pitching beat outstanding hitting in Cal State L.A.'s two playoff games.

The Golden Eagles got outstanding pitching as well from freshman Brandon Quintero, who matched Owen through seven innings and kept Cal State L.A. in a 1-1 game. He was a bit unlucky in the eighth inning when a shallow fly ball to right field was blown back in toward the line by a strong wind and away from right fielder Manny Acosta, falling in for a go-ahead double that proved to be the winning run.

The playing conditions were not in the Golden Eagles' best interests as a strong breeze blowing in from the outfield helped keep Cal State L.A.'s potent bats in check.

The Otters (39-16) put the game out of reach in the ninth inning by scoring six runs against Quintero and second baseman/reliever Ryan Cooperstone, who had pitched five strong innings and picked up the win Sunday against Sonoma State that clinched a postseason spot for the Golden Eagles. Cal State L.A.. which had scored 49 runs in five tournament wins last week, didn't approach those numbers this week.

The gas tank appeared to be near empty for the Golden Eagles after last week's thrilling run to the program's first conference championship tournament title.

Cal State Monterey Bay scored a run in the first inning on a two-out run-scoring single by David Garcia, who finished the game 3-for-5 with five RBI. The Golden Eagles tied it in the second on doubles from Acosta and Casey Ryan and the teams battled evenly throughout the rest of the tense game.

Both teams had runners cut down at the plate in the sixth. Tyler Christian made an alert play at third base, grabbing a grounder with runners on first and third and no one out and throwing out Ronnie Fhurong at home with an easy tag for catcher Cody Doyle. Quintero then retired the next two batters to get out of the jam. The Golden Eagles, though, had Doyle throw out at home after he walked, took third on a double to left by Christian and was sent home on a fly ball  to right off the bat of Cooperstone.

The score stayed tied at 1-1 into the eighth when Quintero appeared to retire Garcia for the third out on a soft fly to right that just kept drifting away from Acosta until it fell to the grass.

Garcia hit a three-run home run in the ninth to cap a six-run ninth inning that put the game out of reach.

Quintero walked one and struck out seven in an impressive 8 2/3-inning outing.