SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – The CSUSB baseball team fell to Cal State Monterey Bay in the series opener on Friday night, losing by a score of 4-9. With the loss, the Yotes drop to 27-10 overall and 18-9 in conference. Despite trailing the Otters by four games in the CCAA standings, they still hold a 2.5 game lead over the third place Cal Poly Pomona Broncos, placing CSUSB comfortably in second place with just a few weeks to go in the regular season.
 
One bad inning made the difference on Friday, as the No. 18 Otters were able to plate seven runs in the top of the third inning on six hits, including two home runs. All seven runs were charged to starting pitcher Luke Hempel, who took the loss after throwing 90 pitches in 3.1 innings. This was just Hempel's second loss of the season as he still owns a strong record of 5-2. It was also the Otters' 14^th consecutive win of the season, the second longest in all of NCAA Division II.
 
The Yotes' pen shut down the hot Otter bats. Nate Mendoza, Andres Quinones, Andrick Jones, and Chris Hernandez teamed up to allow just one earned run in 5.2 innings, while also striking out 10 batters and walking just two. Jones had a dominant performance in the eighth, coming just one called-strike shy of an immaculate inning. That batter would eventually sneak a single through the right side, but Jones would respond by striking out his third batter of the inning.
 
The CSUSB bats made some noise early on, creating opportunities to score. After the big top of the third inning by CSUMB, the Yotes manufactured a run in the bottom half on a Daryl Ruiz double down the right field line, scoring AJ Barraza. Monterey Bay's starting pitcher would silence the Yote bats as they gathered just one hit over the next four innings. Once they got to the pen, CSUSB scored three runs on five hits over the final two innings.
 
DeShawn Johnson led the offense, recording three hits in five at-bats while driving in two runners on a double in the ninth. He also scored one of the four runs in the game.
 
 
Up Next
The Yotes and Otters will face off in a doubleheader tomorrow, April 15th, set for 1:00 PM. You can purchase tickets here or catch the action on the CCAA Network at ccaanetwork.com.
 
To see the full CSUSB baseball schedule, click HERE.
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