ROHNERT PARK -- The Sonoma State baseball team got seven innings and seven strikeouts from
Bobby Raymos and rode a five-run first inning to a 5-3 victory over No. 8 Cal Poly Pomona Friday afternoon at Seawolf Diamond. The win improves the Seawolves record to 6-7 in CCAA play and 11-10 overall. The Broncos fell to 6-3 in the conference and 14-5 overall.
After giving up a run to the Broncos in the first inning, the Seawolves bats were ready to go. The Seawolves batted around in the bottom of the first inning and collected five runs on six hits. Five of the six hits were singles with
Jourdan Weiks having the lone extra base hit. The five singles by
Alex Crosby,
Devin Alexander,
Spencer Neve, Brandon Merriwether, and
Dustyn Macaluso all scored runs.
The pitchers took over after the hectic first inning and the crowd at Seawolf Diamond didn't see any more runs until the sixth inning, when the Broncos pushed across a run to reduce the Seawolves' lead to 5-2. The Broncos added a third run in the eighth to set-up a nervous top of the ninth for #NomaNation. Two walks and an error by Sonoma State loaded the bases for Cal Poly Pomona, but
Tyler Sanders came in to relieve
DeVon Golden and snared a Christian Kelly groundball to end the Cal Poly Pomona threat and notch the Seawolves sixth victory in their last seven games.
Philip Ramos led the Seawolves in hitting going 2 for 4. Seven other Seawolves got one hit. Raymos collected his third win in four starts this season only allowing two earned runs on two hits to go with seven strikeouts. Sanders got his first career save for Sonoma State.
Kelly went 2 for 4 with three runs for the Broncos. Max Bethell got the loss (2-2) going 6 2/3 innings and allowing five earned runs on eight hits and seven strikeouts.
The Seawolves and Broncos take the field Saturday at Sonoma State for the first of two games starting at 11:00 A.M. The second game will follow 25-30 minutes after the completion of the first game.