SAN BERNARDINO -- Cal State LA's baseball team fell behind early and never could quite catch up in a California Collegiate Athletic Association loss to Cal State San Bernardino.

The Golden Eagles sliced a 9-2 deficit to 9-8, but that's as close as they could get in a 12-8 defeat at Fiscalini Field in the opener of a four-game series. Cal State LA (24-22, 21-20 CCAA) is now in sixth place in the CCAA, one game back of Cal Poly Pomona and San Francisco State and one game ahead of Sonoma State and Cal State East Bay. The top six teams will qualify for the CCAA Championship Tournament. Cal State Monterey Bay, UC San Diego and Chico State have already clinched tournament spots.

Nic Bereaud, Jorge Garcia and Sean Watkins all hit home runs for the Golden Eagles, who had eight hits in all. Cal State San Bernardino (15-32, 15-26 CCAA) had 16 hits, including home runs from Garrett Ouellette and Alec Ceniceros. Ty Lineberger went 5-for-5 for the Coyotes.

Angel Lerma allowed 11 hits and nine runs over five innings for the Golden Eagles. Miguel Garcia, making his season debut, tossed two scoreless innings before leaving after a leadoff walk in the eighth and Gabe Ramos finished up. Michael Moriarty allowed eight hits and seven earned runs over seven innings and Noah Simon and Konner Arnold each pitched a scoreless inning to wrap things up.

Cal State LA fell behind 4-0 after two innings. The Golden Eagles made it 4-2 in the fourth when Bereaud followed a single to Spencer Sundahl with a two-run home run. Cal State San Bernardino, though, tacked on five more runs in the bottom of the inning, three on a home run by Ceniceros.

Cal State LA got a run-scoring double from Watkins and a fielder's choice by Bereaud in the sixth to make it 9-4 and then got a three-run home run from Garcia after a single by Anthony Moreno and a walk to Anthony Ayala and a solo home run by Watkins in the seventh to make it 9-8.

Cal State LA was unable to score in the eighth and Cal State San Bernardino got five in the bottom of the inning to put the game out of reach.

Cal State LA will return to action on Friday with a game at Cal State San Bernardino at 3 p.m. The series will conclude on Saturday at Reeder Field with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. The Golden Eagles will honor their 15 seniors in a ceremony in between games.