UC Riverside drew a walk with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th inning to beat UCSB, 5-4, in a Big West baseball game on Friday night at the Riverside Sports Complex.
Mason Grace walk in the winning run for the second straight game for Riverside. The victory snapped an eight-game skid to the Gauchos and gave the Highlanders (4-15 in the Big West, 10-30 overall) their fourth win in its last six games, three of which have been by a single run.
UCSB fell to 13-6 in the Big West, putting it two games behind first-place Cal State Fullerton. The Gauchos are 28-14 overall.
After a rocky first inning in which in gave up four runs, Gaucho starter Matt Ager settled down and struck out a career-best 13 batters before being lifted in the eighth after allowing a lead-off triple with the score tied 4-4.
Carter Benbrook came on and stranded the runner at third. He got help from a diving stop and strong throw across the diamond by third baseman Zander Darby.
In the bottom of the ninth, Tyler Bremner struck out the first two batters he faced, then stared down a bases-loaded, full-count situation. He fired a fastball for strike three to send the game into extra innings.
UCSB rallied from 4-0 hole. Darby kick-started the comeback in the second by crushing his sixth home run of the season, over the tall wall in straightaway center field. Corey Nunez followed that with a triple off the wall in right and Jonah Sebring‘s single drove home Nunez.
It was Darby, Nunez, and Sebring combining again in the fourth inning to tie the game. Darby led off with a single up the middle, Nunez reached on an error by the Highlander pitcher, then took second on a bad throw. Darby moved around to third. Sebring drove them both home with a loud double to left field.
In the 11th, Riverside hit a line drive to the wall in left with a runner on base. Gaucho outfielder Jessada Brown, who had entered the game as a pinch runner in the top half of the inning, made a leaping catch and sent the runner scurrying back to first.
The Highlanders, however, took advantage of three walks to win the game.