BOX SCORE #30 Sonoma State 6, Cal State Monterey Bay 3 -- Box Score
ROHNERT PARK -- Justin Serrao went 2 for 4 with a double and three RBI and
Matt Hammonds earned his first collegiate win on the mound, helping the Sonoma State baseball team to a 6-3 victory over Cal State Monterey Bay in Saturday's series finale at Seawolf Diamond in Rohnert Park. The 30th-ranked Seawolves (21-12, 18-6 CCAA) forced a four-game series split with the visiting Otters (16-26, 11-21 CCAA) to remain in second place in the conference standings with eight games left in the regular season.
Building off of the momentum from a doubleheader sweep of Sonoma on Friday, CSU Monterey Bay took the early lead on an RBI double by Travis Bonner in the top of the first inning. The Seawolves responded with four unanswered runs, starting with a run in the bottom of the third inning when
Jourdan Weiks stole third base and came home on an errant throw by the CSUMB catcher to knot the game at 1-1. SSU grabbed the lead in its next at bat on a two-run, bases loaded double down the left field line by Serrao that scored
Garrett Schwartz and
Alex Crosby. An insurance run was added in the bottom of the fifth inning for a Seawolf 4-1 lead on an
Eric Ehlow sacrifice fly that would eventually prove to be all Sonoma State would need.
The Otters continued to battle back and with one out in the top of the sixth, back-to-back doubles got the visitors to within two runs and it chased Hammonds from the game.
Aaron Gillis came on in relief and gave up a single, but a run-scoring groundout and a strikeout ended the CSUMB sixth. From then on, Gillis, despite allowing two base hits to start the top of the ninth, settled in to keep the Otters scoreless en route to his second save of the season. The lefty struckout three of the 15 batters he faced, retiring all but four batters in his three and two-thirds innings of work. Hammonds (1-0) went the first five and a third, scattering four hits, three runs (two earned) and one walk, striking out three.
Prior to the final out of the game, the Seawolves added a run in the seventh (an RBI single by Crosby) and a run in the eighth (an RBI single by Serrao) to account for the 6-3 final score, in favor of SSU.
Crosby went 3 for 4 with two doubles and an RBI, in addition to Serrao's 2 for 4 effort with three RBI. Weiks,
Daniel Caresio and
Dallas Seidel had a pair of hits each as the Seawolves totaled 14 for the ballgame.
Cal State Monterey Bay starter Chris Daniels (1-4) suffered the loss, he worked the first five innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on seven hits and two walks while striking out a career-high nine batters. In fact, eight of the first 10 outs recorded by Daniels were done via the strikeout.
Sonoma State will take on Cal State Stanislaus in a home-and-home series starting next Friday (Apr. 25) with a doubleheader in Rohnert Park, beginning at Noon. The series will then shift to Turlock on Saturday for a doubleheader starting at 2:00 pm.
