THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Sophomore Derek Finlay roped a game-tying double with the Keene State College baseball team down to their final out after they entered the top of the ninth trailing by five runs, but the Owls wound up coming up short in a 9-8 ten-inning loss to California Lutheran University at George "Sparky" Anderson Field/Ullman Stadium on Friday night.

Playing on the west coast this weekend after a three-day visit to North Carolina last weekend, KSC (3-1) sprung to life offensively over the final three regulation innings and nearly pulled off a big comeback against a team receiving votes in the D3baseball.com Top 25 poll – but instead will rue five errors and 13 left on base as Wes Lynch rescued the Kingsmen (9-3) with a walk-off single with two down in the tenth.

The Owls trailed 7-0 after five innings, allowing three runs in both the fourth and fifth innings, as Cal Lutheran hit around Jake Jachym over 4.1 innings.  Kyle Palardy then settled things in and gave KSC a chance, which they eventually began to take advantage of when Evan McCue, Lucas Rogers, and Finlay all recorded RBI singles in the seventh to make it 7-3.  Before his walk-off, Lynch had hammered a run-scoring triple in his previous at-bat to tack on a run for Cal Lutheran in the eighth that made it 8-3.  It seemed like an inconsequential run at the time, but wound up being a big one, as the Owls beat around Ryan Jung to set the stage for a comeback.  The inning began with a walk to McCue before Jonathan Chatfield worked a walk to put two on.  Rogers cracked a double to make it 8-4 and still had the Owls set up with two in scoring position before Mitchell Coffey worked a walk to bring the tying run to the plate with nobody out.  Ethan Rainha bounced out to first to bring in another before pinch-hitter Anthony DiGiacomo came through with a huge two-run double to make it 8-7 and put the tying run in scoring position.  Matt Campo then entered in relief of Jung and got Trevor Snow to fly to right to put KSC down to their final out, but Filey smoked an RBI double down the left field line on a 1-2 pitch to tie the game at eight.  Evan Cali followed with an infield single to second to put runners at the corners and the go-ahead tally 90 feet away, but Campo got McCue to fly to right to preserve the tie.

Troy Brennan entered in the bottom half of the inning and faced just one batter over the minimum to send it to extras, but the Owls struck out four times in the tenth.

Cal Lutheran put the winning run on with one down in the bottom half when Jacob Blickenderfer rolled a single into right with one down.  Jona Dawson then bounced into a 5-4 fielder's choice for the second out, but a costly error put the winning run in scoring position and a wild pitch moved Dawson to third.  Lynch then ended it with his base hit to right, the 17th hit of the day for the Kingsmen (though only two went for extra bases).

KSC could not square up CLU starter Justin Gottlieb, managing only one single over the first five innings.  They did work three walks and struck out only once but did not score until the seventh inning against Caleb Wilson.  The Owls plated three off Wilson and five off Jung, but Campo (1-0) mowed them down in the 10th to help his team avoid a loss after blowing a five-run ninth inning lead.

"We did not compete at a high level early," said KSC head coach Justin Blood.  "We did not play clean and were on our heels a little.  Palardy did a great job settling the game down for us and we showed great fight in the later innings.  We need to land some early punches and defend if we are going to win a couple games out here."

Jachym allowed seven runs (six earned) in 4.1 innings.  Brennan (0-1) took the loss, allowing a run and two hits with one strikeout in the final 1.2 frames.
 
Cal Lutheran, who won a Division III national championship in 2017, improved to 8-3 at home.

The teams are back at it tomorrow (Saturday, March 7) at 2:00 and 5:00 p.m. ET for a doubleheader before the Owls close the weekend at Whittier College on Sunday.