BOX SCORE SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – The No. 21 Cal State Monterey Bay baseball team stranded 11 runners to fall 5-4 to the Coyotes of Cal State San Bernardino Friday in the series opener at Fiscalini Field.
 
The Otters drop to 24-11 overall and 16-9 CCAA play while CSUSB snapped an eight-game losing streak to improve to 12-21, 6-19 in conference action.
 
Junior Mark Hurley (Hollister/College of San Mateo) went 4-for-5 with a home run.  Seniors Jason Merjano (San Ramon/Sierra College), Tommy George (Elk Grove HS) and Brian Haggett (Hollister/West Valley College) each added two hits as CSUMB outhit the Coyotes 13-7.
 
After giving up five runs in the first two innings, starter Chris Daniels (Citrus Heights/Sierra College) retired the side in the final seven innings to take the loss in his first complete game of the season.
 
Hurley crushed a solo homer over the left center wall to begin the CSUMB offense.
 
The score remained 5-1 CSUSB until the fourth inning.  Hurley leadoff with a single and George followed with a double down the left field line to put runners at the corners.  Merjano hit a sacrifice fly to plate Hurley and senior David Garcia (Gilroy/Mission College) singled to left field to score George to cut the gap to two runs.
 
After Haggett's one-out double into the right corner, the Otters added one more run in the fifth on Merjano's single to make it 5-4.
 
Five of the Otters 11 stranded runners came in the final two innings.
 
Billy Hamilton was the lone Coyotes to record two hits.  CSUSB's Ken Kissell picked up his second win of 2013, tossing seven and one-third innings. 
 
The Otters are back at it on Saturday with a doubleheader against CSUSB beginning at 11 a.m.