California State University at Northridge
15-5
Pepperdine
9-12
Matadors Hold Off Pepperdine in 4-3 Victory
3/17/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
En Español
NORTHRIDGE, Calif.-
Chester Pak's fifth-inning home run proved to be the difference in CSUN Baseball's (15-5) 4-3 victory over visiting Pepperdine (9-12) on Tuesday afternoon at Matador Field. Rayne Raven earned his fourth victory of the season by pitching into the seventh inning and striking out five batters.
In what was a tightly-contested game for the entire afternoon, the Matadors fell behind early in the first inning on a two-out, solo home run by Brad Anderson. CSUN would quickly bounce back with two runs in the bottom half of the frame.
After Justin Toerner hit a one-out single in the first, Ryan Raslowsky doubled to right field to move Toerner to third base. Yusuke Akitoshi followed with an RBI single to score Toerner and tie the game at 1-1. Spencer O'Neil then broke the tie by driving in a second run with a single through the right side of the infield to score Raslowsky.
"For the second-straight game we let the at bats open up to us instead of forcing the issue," said Head Coach Greg Moore. "When we do that we get better counts and have better swings."
The Matadors added another run in the second inning to extend the lead to 3-1 but the Waves would rally back to tie the game at 3-3 by plating single runs in the fourth and fifth innings.
Raven allowed the tying run to come across in the fourth but was able to minimize the damage in the frame. The Waves loaded the bases with nobody out to start the inning, but Raven managed to only allow one run to score on a sacrifice fly by Kolten Yamaguchi.
The junior from Tacoma, Wash., Raven stranded full basepaths in the inning by striking out Chase Lambert and forcing Matt Gelalich to groundout to end the frame and preserve the tie.
"He did a nice job of moving the baseball into batters in that inning," said Coach Moore. "He surprised the hitters by changing his approach slightly."
In the bottom of the fifth, CSUN quickly answered by taking the lead right back, as Pak hit a leadoff home run over the left field wall to give his team a 4-3 lead. The long ball was Pak's team-leading third home run of the season.
The Waves threatened to score in the seventh inning against Conner O'Neil who came into the game in relief of Raven. With runners on first and second base with two outs, O'Neil forced Aaron Barnett to foul out to end the inning.
O'Neil pitched around a leadoff double in the ninth inning by retiring the next three batters in order to end the game and earn his fifth save of the season.
CSUN Baseball returns back to Matador Field on Thursday afternoon when it takes on Dartmouth for the start of a four-game series. First pitch is slated for 2 p.m.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Raven, Rayne (4-1)
L: GARCIA, Kiko (0-3)
S: O'Neil, Conner (5)
Batting:
2B: BARNETT, Aaron 1 ; MOYER, Hutton 1
HR: ANDERSON, Brad 1
RBI: ANDERSON, Brad 1 ; BARNETT, Aaron 1 ; YAMAGUCHI, Kolten 1
SH: CARUSO, Brandon 1 ; JEFFERSON, Manny 1
SF: YAMAGUCHI, Kolten 1
Base Running:
RUNS: CARUSO, Brandon 1 ; ANDERSON, Brad 2
Batting:
2B: Raslowsky, Ryan 1 ; Blaser, Nick 1
HR: Pak, Chester 1
RBI: Pak, Chester 1 ; Akitoshi, Yusuke 1 ; O'Neil, Spencer 1
SH: Raslowsky, Ryan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Pak, Chester 1 ; Toerner, Justin 1 ; Raslowsky, Ryan 1 ; Blaser, Nick 1
