A four-run fifth inning proved the difference, as CSU San Marcos baseball lost 9-5 on the road to Concordia University (Irvine) on Tuesday.

The loss drops CSUSM to 5-5-1 this season, while Concordia improves to 6-1.

The score was just 2-1 through four and a half innings, with Cougar starter Johnny Holtman doing a reasonably good job of limiting the Eagles' lineup.  The Cougars scored on a Ryle Parks home run in the top of the fifth, his first of the season.

But in the bottom of that inning, a leadoff walk and hit-by-pitch followed by an RBI double doomed Holtman, as Concordia would get to the Cougar bullpen as well to make it 6-1.

Still, the Cougars didn't quit, clawing their way back into the contest.  Mike Pena led off the seventh with a single, Parks singled, and Mitch Ferguson recorded the sac fly.  After a Matt Jenkins walk, Ricardo Moran loaded the bases with a base hit.  Omar Manzanarez added another sac fly to cut it to 6-3, but Eagles' reliever Blake Harrison recorded a strikeout to end the threat.

After Concordia re-extended the lead to 8-3 in the bottom of the inning, CSUSM inched closer again.  Josh Miller, Johnny Omahen, and Pena were all hit by pitches from newly-entered reliever Jacob McBride, and Parks made Concordia pay with a two-run single.  But CSUSM failed to plate any more runs in what would be their best chance of the game.

Concordia added one more in the eighth, and got through the ninth unscathed to defeat the Cougars.