SEASIDE, Calif. --
Ryan O'Malley stayed hot at the plate and
Daniel Caresio delivered four hits on the day, but the Sonoma State baseball team could only watch as Cal State Monterey Bay stunned the Seawolves with a pair of walk-off wins by identical 7-6 scores in a non-conference twinbill in Seaside. The first game saw the Seawolves rally to take a lead in the top of the tenth only to see the Otters score twice in the bottom of the inning. After a big comeback in game two, the Seawolves surrendered an unearned run in the sixth and final inning (game called due to darkness).
With the losses, the Seawolves see their record drop to 1-4 on the season. While the teams are CCAA rivals, Saturday's games were not designated as conference games. Cal State Monterey Bay stayed unbeaten in 2016 at 5-0.
Game 1The Seawolves were cruising right along in game one, thanks to three shutout innings by ace
Ryan Luna. However, in the fourth inning, against relief pitcher
Ben Herrick, the Otter bats woke up as they rallied for seven hits and five runs before Herrick was lifted.
Sonoma nearly got all five runs back in the seventh, as
Grant St. Martin and
Ryan O'Malley singled in runs to highlight a four-run inning. SSU drew even in the eighth when
Spencer Neve scored on a balk by former SSU pitcher Stevan Zaharias.
It looked like the Seawolves might steal one from the home team when they scored in the tenth on a
Philip Ramos RBI single, but CSUMB countered with a two-run single by Chris Blanton in the bottom of the frame.
Caresio, St. Martin, O'Malley, and Ramos all had two hits as the Seawolves got to Otter pitchers for ten hits in the ballgame.
Spencer Neve scored twice.
Taylor Leach (0-1) was tagged with the loss.
Game 2Sonoma got out of the gate strong in the first inning of game two, scoring one run on an
Adam Manzer sacrifice fly and another when O'Malley scampered home from third on a wild pitch. They couldn't rest on their laurels for long, though, as the Otters got to SSU starting pitcher
Cal Becker for three in the first and three more in the third to take a 6-2 lead.
If they don't have wins to show for their effort on Saturday, the Seawolves certainly showed resilience, battling back with three runs in the fifth and one more in the sixth to tie the game at six. O'Malley had a two-run triple and
Trevor Mallett had an RBI double in the rally.
With darkness approaching and two quick strikeouts from
DeVon Golden, it looked like the Seawolves might escape with a tie, if nothing else. However, a single, then an error set the stage for Matt Urakami to single home the winning run and leave the Seawolves feeling empty.
Caresio was 2-for-3 with a double and both he and O'Malley scored twice in the game. Golden (0-1) was charged with the loss after giving up a single run (unearned) in 3.2 innings of work.
Up NextThe Seawolves will host Menlo College next Tuesday in a single game. First pitch is set for 2:00 pm.
