Riverside Sweep Ends Toros’ Hopes for Title

Any hopes the Cal State Dominguez Hills baseball team had of winning the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. title ended at home Saturday with an 8-2 loss to UC Riverside.

Saturday’s defeat capped a three-game series sweep by Riverside that began with a 1-0 Dominguez Hills loss at home on Thursday. On Friday, the Highlanders defeated the Toros, 9-8, at Riverside.

The three losses dropped the Toros to 11-16-2 overall and 5-11 in conference play. They have lost eight of their last 10 games.

The Highlanders (27-9 overall and 11-2 in the conference) remain in first place in the CCAA.

Riverside broke out to an early 1-0 lead Saturday when third baseman Ruben Ayala scored on a throwing error by Dominguez Hills shortstop John Blood in the second inning. The Toros have allowed 43 unearned runs this season.

Ayala’s towering home run to lead off the sixth inning made it 2-0. It was only the second homer hit at Toro Field this season.

Riverside put the game away by scoring three more runs in the sixth. Losing pitcher Armando Percival (0-2, 6.30 earned-run average) was relieved by Armando Gomez, (5-4, 3.71 ERA), but the rout continued in the seventh, when Ty Murphy drove in Ayala to run the score to 6-0.

Gomez pitched one inning and gave way to Leonard Fletcher (1-0, 4.95 ERA). In the top of the eighth, Riverside recorded its final runs when Murphy and first baseman Logan Ostrander scored on an error by senior third baseman Fred Camarena.

Dominguez Hills finally scored in the bottom of the eighth. Miguel Medina singled and was sacrificed to second by Robert Campbell. Medina moved to third on Blood’s fly to center field. George Scott singled in Medina, and Darrell Connor doubled in Scott.

Connor’s double extended his hitting streak to 17 games, the longest in a single season in Toro history.

Riverside starter Bill Jordan (5-1, 3.70 ERA) got the victory.

In the series opener Thursday, Gomez, a senior left-hander, pitched eight scoreless innings, only to lose the game on Camarena’s error with two out in the ninth. His throw pulled Connor off first base, allowing the game’s only run to score from second. The win went to Steve Green (1-0 with a perfect 0.00 ERA in 16 2/3 innings.)

Friday’s second game, at UC Riverside, was another heartbreaker. Dominguez Hills led, 7-5, in the fifth inning, but then the Highlanders rallied for four runs to go ahead, 9-7.

The Toros cut the deficit to one run on an RBI single by second baseman Bill Keep, but Riverside’s Eric Welker hung on to take the win.

Campbell had his best game of the series, with four hits in five at-bats. Toro pitcher John Gutierrez (0-1, 7.50 ERA) took the loss.