After Losing Opener, Toros Bring Out the Lumber, 17-0 : Baseball: Dominguez Hills snaps a seven-game CCAA losing streak and moves within two games of conference lead.

After losing the opener, 7-1, the Cal State Dominguez Hills baseball team snapped a seven-game California Collegiate Athletic Assn. losing streak by defeating Cal State San Bernardino, 17-0, on Saturday.

The Toros pounded out 22 hits--the most for the team this season and the second-highest total in school history--in the second game.

It was the most runs Dominguez Hills has scored since an 18-6 win over Biola in the first game of the season.

Dominguez Hills is 25-20 and 11-11 in the conference. San Bernardino, which won Friday’s opener, 9-5, is 23-19-1 and 12-12.

The Toros, who have eight conference games remaining, including back-to-back doubleheaders at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Friday and Saturday, are two games behind front-running Cal Poly Pomona.

“It means the world to know that we’re going up to San Luis Obispo with that feeling of winning and we’ve got our destiny in our hands again,” Coach George Wing said. “I think this is a healed baseball team that can roll into San Luis Obispo and do some damage now.”

In the opener, the teams were scoreless through six innings before San Bernardino scored twice in the seventh off Toro reliever Cory Lintern.

Dominguez Hills had an opportunity to tie the score after back-to-back singles by second baseman Jason Gill and first baseman Greg Bergeron with two outs in the bottom of the eight. But third baseman Alfredo Rodriguez flew out to center field to end the threat.

San Bernardino broke the game open in the ninth with five runs, four of which were unearned.

Dominguez Hills scored 14 runs on 14 hits in the first three innings of the second game. The Coyotes didn’t help their cause by committing seven errors.

The Toros were led by Bergeron, who went six for seven in the doubleheader to improve his average to .411.

Rodriguez also had four hits and outfielder Eric Martin went two for three, including a double that drove in three runs, in the second game.

“It’s good to get the monkey off our backs with a game like this,” Martin said. “We could’ve just beaten them 5-0 and put our bats away, but we had a little pay-back in mind because they beat us in the first two games.”

Martin is hopeful the big victory will give the team a lift.

“Coming off something positive like this, this is going to kick us off well for next week,” he said. “It’s still a do-or-die situation for us, but this gives us some hope.”