Two-out runs costly as Roadrunners lose in home opener 12-4

A struggle to finish hurt Cal State Bakersfield early, and a rare occurrence buried them late in the team’s home opener. Pacific scored four two-out runs in the first five innings, then blew things open with a five-run sixth inning, topping the Roadrunners 12-4 in a non-conference baseball tilt Friday afternoon at Hardt Field.

Things seemed to start on an ideal note for the Roadrunners, as starting pitcher Cody Tucker struck out the first two batters he faced. But Jeremy Lea changed the tenor of the game with one swing, blasting a solo home run to right field.

The Tiger lead then quickly doubled as Thomas Gavello recorded a double then came around to score on a single by Alex LeForestier.

An inability to close out innings continued to be a trend, as Pacific also plated two-out runs in the fourth and fifth innings, one of which coming by virtue of an error.

“We certainly didn’t come out and play a complete game in anyway,” CSUB coach Jeremy Beard said. “A few things went wrong early, and I didn’t think we rebounded and made adjustments. We did a really nice job of getting to two outs, but we need to close out an inning there.”

The Roadrunner offense didn’t help things, as CSUB mustered just two hits through the first five innings, with both coming from Tyler Jorgensen.

Jorgensen, who went 3-for-4 to record his 26th multi-hit game in 75 appearances at CSUB, tried to give the ‘Runners a spark in the fifth inning as he attempted to turn a one-out double into a triple, only to be thrown out at third.

“I saw my coach waving me ... I saw a little bobble in right field,” Jorgensen said. “In that situation you’ve just got to try to force something to happen when not a lot’s going on. You’ve just got to try to ... make something happen.”

CSUB then put two runners on base for the first time in the sixth, but failed to bring anyone home.

The Tigers responded by plating five runs in the top of the seventh, four of which came on a rare inside-the-park grand slam by Chase Graves, whose line drive to right field went over the head of Nick Grossman, who lost the ball with the sun glaring directly into his face.

“Our sun’s really difficult at that time,” Beard said. “He just could not see it off the bat. That’s baseball sometimes ... unfortunately it happened to be with a few guys on base.”

Though it was too late, CSUB’s offense finally pushed some runs across the plate on a towering three-run home run by Cody Holtz in the seventh inning. Kyle Barileau added a fourth run by scoring on a ninth-inning pass ball for CSUB, which fell to 1-3 on the young season.

The teams will play three more times this weekend, beginning with a doubleheader at Hardt Field today. The first game begins at noon.