WALNUT -- Cal State LA's baseball team endured a rough start to Sunday's series finale against Montana State Billings and had to settle for a series split.

The Golden Eagles surrendered 10 runs in the second inning and fell to the Yellowjackets, 19-8, at Mazmanian Field on the campus of Mt. San Antonio College. 

A dropped pop-up started the avalanche in the second inning and by the time the inning was over, the Yellowjackets had bunched together six hits, four walks and a hit batter into 10 runs.

Cal State LA tried to battle back and managed 11 hits in the game, including a three-run home run from freshman Drew Emmons. Another freshman, A.J. Salgado, collected two more hits to give him 10 hits and a .667 batting average in the four-game series. Will Picketts had a hit and two walks and scored three times, while catcher Gerardo Castaneda went 3-for-4 with one run scored and one RBI.

The Golden Eagles, though, committed four errors, walked 11 batters and hit four and couldn't slow down the Yellowjackets.

Dylan Needham pitched four innings of relief for the Golden Eagles, allowing four hits and four earned runs while walking three and striking out nine. He struck out four in the sixth inning, but an apparent missed call on a third strike that would have ended the inning led to an extra pitch that wound up being a swinging strikeout n a wild pitch instead and kept the inning alive. Ethan Babcock-Barrie followed with a two-run double and Tyler Godfrey hit a two-run home run to account for the four runs Needham allowed.

Montana State Billings starter Connor Redmond limited Cal State LA to just five hits and two runs over five innings. He didn't walk a batter and struck out two. 

Cal State LA scored its first run in the second inning when a sacrifice fly from Emmons drove in Picketts, who had started the inning with a single. After the Yellowjackets scored a pair of unearned runs in the fourth, Cal State LA got a run back in the fifth inning when a double by Johnny Pacheco drove in Michael Rosales.

Montana State Billings scored four more times in the sixth to make it 16-2 before the Golden Eagles scored three times in the bottom of the inning on a powerful home run to right from Emmons. That blast was the first home run of the season for the Golden Eagles and gave Emmons four RBI on the day.

The Golden Eagles collected their final three runs in the eighth. Castaneda drove in a run with a single and later scored on a wild pitch and Rosales came in to score on a passed ball.