MONTEREY PARK -- Cal State LA's baseball team led, then fell behind, then rallied for a wild win in the opener of a four-game California Collegiate Athletic Association series against San Francisco State.

The Golden Eagles led 4-0, then surrendered eight straight runs before scoring eight straight runs in a 12-8 win over the Gators at East Los Angeles College. Cal State LA (8-11, 5-4 CCAA) scored four runs without a hit to tie the game in the sixth inning and then scored two runs in the seventh and two more in the eighth to record the win. 

The game featured 25 hits, six errors, seven walks and 21 runners left on base.

Cal State LA got outstanding relief pitching from Anthony Diaz and Joel Martinez, who blanked the powerful San Francisco State lineup over 4 2/3 innings. Diaz allowed one hit over 2 2/3 innings with no walks and four strikeouts to pick up his first win of the season, while Martinez pitched two scoreless innings, allowing one hit and a walk while striking out four for his first save of the season.

Cal State LA had 13 hits in the game, while San Francisco State had 12. Alberto Prado went 4-for-5 for the Golden Eagles with one run scored and two RBI, while Javy Espinoza was 3-for-4 with one run scored and one RBI. Malik Clayton hit his first home run of the season to lead off the game for Cal State LA, while Ben Lee went 2-for-4 with three runs scored and one RBI.

San Francisco State (11-10, 7-6 CCAA) got two hits each from Daniel Murillo, Michael Cunningham, Justin Johnson, AJ Schrader and Stephen Espinoza. Murillo scored twice and drove in two r uns, while Espinoza drove in three runs for the Gators.

Clayton got the Golden Eagles off to a good start with his first home run of the season and Cal State LA batted around and took a 4-0 lead. Cesar Chavez doubled in two runs to make it 3-0 and Prado singled to complete the first-inning scoring.

The Gators got a sacrifice fly from Nicholas Allred and a run-scoring single from Johnson in a two-run third inning and then took the lead with four runs in the fourth. Espinoza singled in a run, Murillo singled in a pair of runs to give the Gators the lead and Cunningham doubled in a run to make it 6-4. 

San Francisco State added two more runs in the fifth on a single up the middle by Espinoza to take an 8-4 lead.

Cal State LA scored four runs without a hit in the sixth to tie it. Ethan Gonzalez and Chavez drew bases-loaded walks, Prado drove in a run with a fielder's choice and Espinoza delivered a sacrifice fly to deep right to tie it.

Lee doubled in the go-ahead run in the seventh and scored on a fielder's choice by Gonzalez.

Cal State LA got two more big runs in the eighth on a clutch two-run single by Kadyn Victorian.

Martinez worked around a one-out walk and a single by striking out the side in the ninth to wrap things up.

The Golden Eagles and Gators will meet in a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m.