11th Inning Error Hands Baseball 8-7 Win Over Visiting UC Santa Barbara

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Box Score Riverside—After 11 innings, 22 hits and 14 runs, UC Riverside's Friday evening tilt against UC Santa Barbara was ultimately decided on a dropped infield pop up, as the Highlanders rallied for an 8-7 victory.The Gauchos (18-21, 4-6) tied up the back-and-forth affair with two runs in the top of the eighth, and although the Highlanders put runners in scoring position in the ninth and tenth, it remained a tie game into the 11th.Steven Ledesma was on for his fourth inning of relief, and gave up a single to Colby Schultz to start the inning. AJ Sawyer moved him into scoring position with a sac bunt, and UC Santa Barbara Head Coach Andrew Checketts countered by intentionally walking the Highlanders' best hitter, Mark Contreras. After Michael Farris lined out to left for the second out, Checketts elected to intentionally walk Cade Peters, loading the bases for freshman Connor Cannon.Cannon swung at the first pitch he saw, and popped it up down the third base line. It is typically anathema for a pitcher to catch a pop up, but Ledesma called off the rest of his infielders and settled under the ball. Unfortunately for the Gauchos, the ball bounced off the heel of his glove, and fell to the ground, allowing Schultz to come home with the game-winning run.Angel Landazuri (3-3) picked up the win for the Highlanders tossing three innings of one-hit, no run baseball.Prior to that extra-inning excitement, the game was divided into two parts—a three-inning slug fest to open the game, and a pitcher's dual which held up over the next eight frames.UCSB scored in each of the first three innings off of UC Riverside starter Ryan Lillie, as the Highlanders found themselves in an early hole. Cody Sporrer made sure it wasn't a deeper deficit by launching a three run home ...

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