CHICO, Calif-  Sonoma State banged out 20 hits and got a fine pitching performance from Gary Moran on Thursday to defeat Nebraska-Kearney 15-2 in the opening game of the 2008 NCAA Baseball Championship West Regional at Nettleton Stadium in Chico.  With the win, the Seawolves (47-13) will play again on Friday at 3:00 pm against the loser of tonight's Chico State-Cal State Stanislaus game.

Nebraska-Kearney, the sixth-seed in the tournament, will play again tomorrow morning at 11:00 am against the loser of this afternoon's Western Oregon-UC San Diego game.

The Seawolves' 47th win of the season is the third-most in school history.  The Seawolves won 50 games in 2001 and in 2007. 

Gary Moran was simply brilliant in picking up his eighth win of the season.  The junior struck out a career-high nine batters while walking just two and allowing one run. 

SSU gave him plenty of support, scoring in seven of the eight innings they would bat in.  SSU scored in each of the first six innings, building up an insurmountable 11-0 lead after six.

Three Seawolves would get three hits in the game from five different players, Nick Nosti, Ian Bridges, Tyrese McDaniel, Travis Babin, and David Adler.  Konrad Thieme and Bridges each homered, their 17th and 7th round trippers of the year, respectively.  Babin drove in three and McDaniel, Bridges, and Kyle Jones scored three times. 

UNK got three hits from Chris Gillaspy and two from Brad Hull.  Loper starter Ryan Sheldon was tagged with the loss after surrendering ten runs, eight of them earned, in 4.1 innings.  Sheldon (8-5) was the 2008 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Pitcher of the Year.

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