LOS ANGELES -- Cal State LA's baseball team endured a pair of excruciating one-run losses to Cal State Monterey Bay on Saturday in a doubleheader at Reeder Field.

The Golden Eagles were unable to hold late leads in each game and fell to the Otters, 9-8 and 5-4 in California Collegiate Athletic Association action. Cal State LA (20-17, 17-10 CCAA) slipped into a second-place tie with Cal State Monterey Bay (24-12, 17-10) and San Francisco State. The Otters have won the first three games of the series by a total of four runs.

Cal State LA erased an early 4-0 lead and grabbed an 8-4 lead after six innings in the opener and then held a 4-1 lead after five innings of the seven-inning nightcap.

Lino Zepeda gave the Golden Eagles seven strong innings and pitched into the eighth in the opener. He gave up four runs in the first three innings, but settled down and allowed only one run over his next four innings. He was removed after a leadoff hit in the eighth and was charged with that run as well when Max Farfan hit a game-tying three-run home run later in the inning.

Alberto Prado went 2-for-4 with three runs scored and a three-run home run that cut Cal State Monterey Bay's early lead to 4-3. Javy Espinoza, Ethan Gonzalez and Kadyn Victorian had two hits each.

Giovanni Costello allowed five hits and only one earned run over 3 1/3 innings of relief to pick up the win for the Otters, while Moises Escobedo, who got the final two outs of the eighth inning to keep the game tied, took the loss after surrendering a solo home run to Cole Murchison in the top of the ninth.

In the nightcap, Cal State LA's Brandon Gutierrez continued his frustrating string of hard luck since throwing a no-hitter at Cal Poly Pomona on March 22. In his next two starts, the Golden Eagles didn't score a run. On Saturday, he finally got some run support in the form of four runs in the fifth inning that erased a 1-0 deficit, but got a no-decision after departing with six outstanding innings on his resume and a 4-3 lead.

Javy Espinoza gave the Golden Eagles a 2-1 lead with a two-run home run to start the sixth-inning rally, Isaiah Marquez singled in a run and Malik Clayton drew a bases-loaded walk to give them a 4-1 lead.

The Otters, though, got a solo home run from Noah Zertuche to start the sixth and a run-scoring single from Jacob Dressler before Quintero got a big strikeout to end the inning - and his day - with a 4-3 lead.

Cal State Monterey Bay then got doubles from Max Farfan and Sergio Solis to tie it in the seventh and got the go-ahead run on a two-out double from KW Quilici.

Henry Roger worked around a two-out single from Clayton in the seventh and picked up the save with a big assist to right fielder Nick Maestas, who recorded two of the outs, including an outstanding catch of a line drive off the bat of Prado.

Cal State LA will conclude the series with Cal State Monterey Bay on Sunday with a single game beginning at noon.