TURLOCK -- Cal State L.A.s' baseball team saw its California Collegiate Athletic Association series against Cal State Stanislaus end on a disappointing note.
The Golden Eagles carried a 5-3 lead into the ninth inning, but the Warriors scored three times on five hits and took the series with a 6-5 victory. Cal State L.A. (23-13, 18-10 CCAA) dropped three of the four games in the series, two of them on the final at bat by Cal State Stanislaus (17-20, 12-15 CCAA). The Warriors have won seven of their last eight games.
Trevor Meleski had a big day at the plate for the Golden Eagles, hitting a go-ahead two-run home run in the seventh inning that broke a 2-2 tie and driving in three runs on the day.
Trent Zaks was 2-for-4 with one RBI,
Jesus Cuevas was 2-for-4 with one run scored and
Jake Jelmini had a triple and a run scored.
Bryan Conant went 6 1/3 innings for the Golden Eagles and allowed seven hits and three runs. He walked five and struck out four.
Reed Reznicek retired the only two batters he faced and struck out one.
Marcos Casillas worked a scoreless eighth inning, but ran into trouble in the ninth. He and
Chris Oropesa were touched for five hits and three runs. Skippy Ferreria hit a two-out double to drive in the winning run with two outs.
The Golden Eagles left the bases loaded in both the seventh and eighth innings.
The Golden Eagles took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Cuevas scored on a wild pitch. The Warriors, though, tied it in the second on a run-scoring groundout by Eriksen Dickens and took a 2-1 lead in the third on a sacrifice fly by Ferreria.
Meleski drove in a run with a fielder's choice in the fourth inning to tie it at 2-2 and gave the Golden Eagles a 4-2 lead in the seventh when he followed a triple by Jelmini with a two-run home run.
Chavarria's sacrifice fly made it 4-3 in the seventh and Zaks drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 5-3 in the eighth.
After the Golden Eagles were retired in order in the ninth by winning pitcher Aaron Godinez, the Warriors got a run-scoring single by Marcus Mastrobuoni, an infield single to tie the game from Chavarria and Ferreria's double to center to win it.
Cal State L.A. will return to action on Thursday with the opener of a four-game series at Cal Poly Pomona on Thursday at 3 p.m. The series will continue Friday in Pomona at 3 p.m. and conclude with a doubleheader at Reeder Field on Saturday beginning at 11 a.m.
