CARSON -- Sophomore catcher Nigel Buckley showed much love to his teammates on Valentine's Day by belting his third home run of the year and second in as many days to lead Cal State Dominguez Hills to an 8-4 win over crosstown-rival Cal State L.A. to even the non-conference series at one game apiece.

Buckley enjoyed a 2-for-4 performance with three RBI and a pair of runs scored, running his hit streak to nine games and counting.

Trailing 4-1 heading into the bottom of the 6th inning, the Toro bats came alive, scoring five runs on four hits.

In the frame, Alex Sepulveda single moved Angel Cortez to second and brought home Zac Ragland, who singled to begin the inning and moved to 2nd on Cortez's base on balls.  After a wild pitched moved runners to 2nd and 3rd, Buckley brought in two runners before Tristan Usher completed the scoring with a towering homer to right field for a 6-4 CSUDH lead.

That's where the score remained until the 8th when Buckley belted a one-out home run to dead center, with Elijah Scott getting plunked with the bases loaded to bring home an insurance run.

Ragland added two hits while Jesse Moore picked up the win after 1.0 innings of work in relief.

The two teams complete the four-game series with a double-header, with first pitch of game one set for a 1:00 pm start.
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