Box Score

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Sophomore Guillermo Salazar finished 2-for-4, including a double to set up the tying run late, but host UC Riverside scored twice in the bottom of the eighth to regain the lead and hand UC Davis a, 5-3, defeat in the Big West Conference opener for both teams on Friday night at the Riverside Sports Complex in Southern California.

The loss was the fourth straight for the Aggies, who fell to 6-14 overall and 0-1 in league play. The Highlanders improved to 11-13 overall and 1-0 in conference.

Salazar sparked the UC Davis rally from a run down with a one-out double to left center and pinch-runner Chris Roppolo moved to third on a wild pitch. After a walk to freshman Logan Denholm put runners on the corners, senior Mason Novak executed a perfect squeeze to the right side, scoring Roppolo to tie the game at 3-3.

Senior Spencer Henderson (0-1) came on in relief to start the eighth and the Highlanders immediately jumped on the left-hander in his first appearance of the season, knocking back-to-back singles off the bats of Colby Schultz and Michael Farris to lead-off the inning. A sacrifice moved both into scoring position for pinch-hitter Adonis Morrison, who drove the first pitch he saw back up the middle past a drawn-in infield, scoring both runners for the decisive scores.

A caught stealing and a ground out got the Aggies out of any further danger, but they were unable to mount another rally in the ninth against reliever Ryan Lillie (2-1), who struck out the first two batters in the inning before inducing a game-ending ground ball to short. Lillie struck out three for the game in the final 1.2 scoreless innings without allowing a hit.

After a quiet first inning, UC Davis was the first on the board in the second inning, stringing together three straight hits to score its first run. Salazar singled to center and went all the way to third on a double by Denholm to put a pair on for Novak, who rolled a ball through the right side for a 1-0 lead. Two batters later Garret Kelly stroked a single up the middle to plate Denholm for the 2-0 lead, but starter Austin Sodders worked out of the jam after Novak was erased at the plate trying to score on Kelly's single inducing a fly ball to close out the inning.

A pair of errors in the second helped Riverside get one of the runs back in its half of the second and the Highlanders went in front with a pair in the fourth on RBI hits by Mark Contreras (double) and Vince Fernandez (single) for a 3-2 advantage.

Freshman Robert Garcia got the start for UC Davis, but was stuck with the no decision, allowing two earned on five hits and striking out three over seven innings. Seven different Aggies combined for eight hits on the night.

Game two of the series is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Saturday night (April 2) with junior Justin Mullins scheduled to take the mound for UC Davis.

UC Riverside 5, UC Davis 3 (Apr 01, 2016 at Riverside, CA)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
UC Davis............ 020 000 010 - 3 8 3 (6-14, 0-1 Big West)
UC Riverside........ 010 200 02X - 5 8 0 (11-13, 1-0 Big West)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: UC Davis - Garcia, Robert; Henderson, Spencer (8) and Denholm, Logan. UC Riverside - Sodders, A; Morton, J(6); Ellis, M(7); Leach, K(7); Lillie, R(8) and Worden, C.
Win-Lillie, R(2-1) Loss- Henderson, Spencer (0-1) T-2:59 A-454
Weather: Southern California