SAN MARCOS -- Cal State LA's baseball team showed a great deal of resiliency on Monday in a California Collegiate Athletic Association contest at Cal State San Marcos.

The Golden Eagles battled all the way back from an early 11-3 deficit, but the Cougars scored nine runs in their final two at bats to pull out a 21-18 victory in the series finale. Cal State LA (9-9, 4-4 CCAA) has now split its first five series of the season.

The Golden Eagles trailed 11-3 after two innings, but scored seven runs in the fourth inning and eventually took a 13-12 lead after scoring a pair of runs in the top of the seventh. Cal State San Marcos, though, responded by scoring six times in the bottom of the seventh to take the lead for good.

Cal State LA scored twice in the eighth and three times in the ninth, but was unable to avoid dropping the series finale.

Cal State LA, one day after scoring 31 runs in a doubleheader, kept its offense alive on Monday. The Golden Eagles collected 17 hits and got production once again from everyone in the lineup. The two teams combined for 33 hits and 25 walks in a game that took more than four hours to complete.

Johnny Pacheco had another big game at the plate and was 3-for-6 with two runs scored and three RBI, while Wilem Drozdowski was 3-for-5 with one run scored and three RBI. A.J. Salgado was 1-for-5 with three runs scored and one RBI. Gerardo Castaneda was 2-for-4 with three runs scored and two RBI, Hayden Luff was 3-for-5 with two runs scored and three RBI, while Nick Atkins scored three runs and drove in one. Will Picketts was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and one RBI.

Cal State San Marcos (6-8, 2-2 CCAA) had three players drive in five runs each -  Luke Reece, Kevin Van Linge and Ethan Rivera.

Incredibly, there weren't any home runs in the game.

After falling behind 11-3 after two innings, the Golden Eagles scored seven runs in the fourth to get close. Pacheco had a run-scoring single, Drozdowski had a two-run single, Picketts and Castaneda each had RBI singles and Luff had a two-run double to make it 11-10.

Pacheco had a run-scoring triple in the fifth and Salgado singled him in to make it a 12-12 tie in the fifth. When Salgado scored on a wild pitch in the seventh, the Golden Eagles took a 13-12 lead. 

Cal State San Marcos, though, bounced back with six runs in the seventh to regain the lead. 

A run-scoring double by Luff and a sacrifice fly by Atkins in the top of the eighth made it 18-15, but the Cougars got three in the bottom of the inning to increase its lead to 21-15.

Cal State LA got an RBI single from Castaneda and a two-run single by Michael Rosales in the top of the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate, but the Golden Eagles couldn't get any closer.

Cal State LA will return to action on Friday, March 18, with the opener of a four-game CCAA series against Cal State Dominguez Hills at Reeder Field.





 



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