Loska Delivers Clutch Hit to Give 'Home Team' Toros Series Win Over Coyotes

SAN BERNARDINO – As Cal State Dominguez Hills and Cal State San Bernardino's baseball teams predicted, rain completely covered Carson Saturday; perhaps too much as Toro Field was ruled unplayable Sunday for the scheduled doubleheader. Both institutions agreed to bring the series back to Fiscalini Field under scattered clouds in which both teams claimed a win.

The 'road team' Coyotes snuck away with game one, 5-4, in 10 innings while a big hit by Pierson Loska lifted the Toros in the nightcap, 4-1, to take their first California Collegiate Athletic Association series win of the season.

GAME 1 – CSUSB 5, CSUDH 4 (10 innings)
TOP PERFORMERS
Joe Canepa – 1-for-1, pinch-hit 2-run home run
Pierson Loska – 2-for-5, 2-run home run
Ricardo Serrano – ND, 3 IP, 2 SO, 1 H

WHAT HAPPENED?
- Trailing the entirety of the game, the Toros rallied in the late innings with errors and the long ball. Jose Jimenez led off the eighth inning reaching on a fielding error by the third baseman and Loska cut the lead to 4-2 with a two-run shot into the trees in left field. It was a pattern going into the ninth. Kaelan Crisosto opened the inning on another fielding error and pinch-hitter Canepa tied the game with another 2-run shot only to right center field.
- The Coyotes regained the lead in the 10^th, using a leadoff double, a sacrifice bunt and an RBI single through the left side to move ahead 5-4.
- C.J. Blowers nearly blowed away the Toros' lineup for six innings. However, he pitched himself into trouble at the start of the seventh with pinch-hitter Domenic Colacchio and Crisosto hitting back-to-back singles and Bailey Bordas getting hit by the pitch. The southpaw pitched himself out of it with a strikeout and a 6-4-3 double play.
- Starter Kodi Koorndyk had a stressful day on the mound, giving up three runs in the third but allowing a batter to reach in his four innings of work. He did strikeout three.

GAME 2 – CSU
TOP PERFORMERS
Pierson Loska – 1-for-3, 3-run triple
Jesse Villalobos – WP, 4 IP, 4 SO, 1 ER
Connor Dreyer – SV, 3 IP, 0 ER, 2 SO, 1 H

WHAT HAPPENED?
- After the Coyotes got on the board in the fourth inning with a sacrifice fly, the Toros responded in a big and bizarre way. Dominguez Hills loaded the bases without recording a hit, Loska battled a 2-2 pitch and hit a high fly ball that was nearly caught by a diving right fielder for a 3-run triple. As he was making his way to third sliding, the throw by the first baseball skipped into foul territory to allow Loska to score the fourth unearned run in the inning and give CSUDH a 4-1 lead.
- Colacchio and Grant Decatrel led off the second reaching base and advanced into scoring position on a one-out walk from Bordas. Aaron Greenfield and Jose Jienez couldn't cash in as both ended the inning on groundouts.

WHO'S NEXT?
The Toros return to their own home field to open a four-game CCAA series with crosstown rivals Cal State LA. The two will clash Friday and Saturday at 2 p.m. before playing the doubleheader at Reeder Field Sunday.