SEASIDE – The Cal State Dominguez Hills baseball team struck early with six runs within the first two innings, but No. 19 and first-place Cal State Monterey Bay never laid down and tied the game in the fourth and broke the tie in the sixth to win the California Collegiate Athletic Association series opener 9-6 Saturday.
 
The Toros wasted little time in the first inning with four runs. Dalton Duarte hit a sacrifice fly to score in leadoff man Kai Gomez for the first run, Eduardo Frayre-Cerda hit an RBI double to drive in Esteban Ortega and Justin Morris knocked in two more with a single to center.
 
Dominguez Hills its fifth and sixth runs in the second. Charles Steele led off with a walk and Gomez followed with a walk. They both ended up scoring on either a passed ball or wild pitch.
 
Rigo Fernandez got off to a strong start, striking out five of his first six batters he faced but ran into trouble in the third. He walked the leadoff hitter and a single and another free pass loaded the bases with two down. He got out of the threat with a strikeout.
 
The southpaw got into trouble again in the fourth only this time he couldn't get himself out of it. He loaded the bases on two hit-by-pitches and a walk and the Otters used a fielder's choice, two doubles, and a two-run single by Kyle Czaplak to tie the game and end Fernandez's day.
 
Neither starting pitcher got to the fifth inning, despite Fernandez striking out eight and his opposite Gabe Katich fanning six.
 
The Toros couldn't seem to stop Czaplak at all, who not only hit the game-tying two-run single in the fourth but broke the tie with a two-run shot in the sixth and got his fifth RBI on a double to center.
 
Ian Codina was the only Toro pitcher to throw a zero in his outing, going 1.1 with a hit, a walk and a strikeout. Gomez had two of the Toros' eight hits.
 
The two ballclubs will play the 9/7 doubleheader Sunday at noon.