BAKERSFIELD, Calif.—On a night in which CSU Bakersfield head coach Bill Kernen had his No. 17 retired, No. 8 UC Santa Barbara spoiled the celebration, as the Gauchos rallied to defeat the Roadrunners 8-7 Tuesday night.

After 4.1 effective innings of relief, Kyle Nelson gave way to Domenic Mazza to start the eighth. Mazza walked pinch-hitter Cody White (So., Hemet, Calif., Hemet HS) to get the innings underway.  After going down 2-0 in the count, Mazza recovered to strike out Mylz Jones (Jr., Palmdale, Calif., Paraclete HS). Kris Cayton (R-Sr., Manhattan Beach, Calif., LA Harbor College). doubled down the right field line for his third hit of the night to move White to third.

Logan Trowbridge (Sr., Santa Cruz, Calif., College of San Mateo) walked to load the bases. Chance Gusbeth (Jr., Lancaster, Calif., Desert Christian HS) walked for a 6-5 score. Hein struck out looking for the second out. Pierce singled to left to score Cayton and Trowbridge. David Metzgar (So., Lancaster, Calif., Desert Christian HS) walked to load the bases but Chris Clemens got Max Carter (So., Bakersfield, Calif., Stockdale HS) to foul out to end the inning.

“Garrett was keeping a chart and wasn't even ready to hit,” Kernen said. “He got his stuff on and got ready to hit and got us the lead. That was a great at-bat.”

Carter, the CSUB closer, got the two first outs of the ninth including a diving catch in left by Cayton. Carter hit pinch-hitter Cameron Newell. Carter got up in the count, 1-2, on Austin Bush. Carter left a breaking ball up in the zone on Austin Bush. Bush smacked a two-run home run to right field for what proved to be the game winning runs. Clemens retired CSUB in order in the bottom of the ninth to improve to 2-0 on the season.

“We played hard and came back, and I was really proud of the way we played,” Kernen said. “Actually this is my fault. I almost always go out to the mound in a situation like that and discuss what we are going to do with a left handed hitting power guy.  We could have avoided that.”

CSUB took a 2-1 lead in the second when Cayton homered to right. The Roadrunners led 3-1 when UCSB scored four times in the fifth to take a two-run lead. CSUB got on back in the bottom of the fifth. The Gaucho added one in the top of the eighth and had the bases loaded, but couldn't add onto the lead.t That set the stage for Pierce's heroics.

Kernen's number 17 is the first number in any sport at CSUB to be retired. Cayton led CSUB by going 3-for-5. He was a triple away from hitting for the cycle. Metzgar went 2-for-3 with two RBI's. Peter Maris and Clay Fisher both charted three hits to pace the Gauchos.  

“Kris Cayton's night was amazing,” Kernen said. “He's really hot right now. We need have guys like that get hot and take over games. This team is going to be fine. We played well and it's disappointing when we lose. It is not going to have an effect on what we have in front of us.”

CSU Bakersfield concludes the regular season with a three-game series at Chicago State beginning Thursday at 6 p.m. (CDT). CSUB sits in third, two games out of first in the WAC. League leader Grand Canyon (30-21, 17-6 WAC) concludes the regular season at fourth place Sacramento State (29-23, 15-9 WAC). Second place Seattle U (26-25, 16-8 WAC) travels to Northern Colorado (16-27 overall) who is tied for fifth in the league (13-11) with North Dakota (20-25 overall) and Utah Valley (17-31 overall). North Dakota travels to New Mexico State (11-35-1, 7-16-1 WAC) while Utah Valley hosts Texas-Pan American (19-29-1, 4-19-1 WAC).

“Grand Canyon and Seattle may have tough games, but we have never played in Chicago and they have beaten both GCU and Seattle,” Kernen said. “We have to take care of business of own and then it won't matter what everybody else does.”

~GoRunners.com~