ROHNERT PARK, CALIF. - On Saturday, February 26th, the Sonoma State baseball team dropped a pair of games to the 16th ranked Wildcats of Chico State in a CCAA doubleheader. The Seawolves held an early lead in game one. and then nearly pulled off the 4-run comeback in game two before giving up a three run 6th. Sonoma State will finish their four game series with Chico State tomorrow morning in a single game at 11:00 AM. 

DH #1 SSU vs. #16 Chico State:

The freshman right hander Jason Doktorczyk would make his fourth appearance of the season and record his first start as a Seawolf against the nationally ranked Wildcats. Doktorczyk would pound the zone early as he went 5 strong innings giving up just 2 runs on 3 hits while striking out 4. An early lead in the first inning would give him a nice buffer and keep SSU well in the game after five. Junior transfer Torreahno Sweet would leadoff for the Seawolves in the Dh spot and smack a triple to center field to put his team in business. Ezele Wicks would come to the plate as the next batter and get the job done wth a sacrifice fly to left field to score Sweet and give Sonoma State their first lead of the four game series. Doktorczyk would find a groove and throw three scoreless innings and sit down the first 9 batters of the game for the Wildcats following the Seawolves early run in the 1st.

The Wildcats would finally breakthrough on a leadoff homer in the bottom of the 4th to tie the game up at one a piece and never look back. they would tally 9 hits in the final four innings of play and put up a 5 spot in the 7th to take a commanding 7-1 lead. A two out RBI triple in the 5th would give Chico a 2-1 lead and force Doktorczyk out of the game. Aidan Dolan would make his fourth appearance and come in relief to pitch the bottom of the 6th. After a leadoff single Dolan would get some help from catcher Cole Brodnansky as he was able to throw out the runner at second after trying to steal the bag. Dolan then retired the next two batters  and recorded a strikeout to end the inning.

As the bats got cold for SSU, they only began to heat up for Chico as they would keep the Seawolves off the board in the top half of the 7th and then turn around and put up a 5 spot in the bottom half of the inning. A double and two walks would load the bases with one out. Dolan would give up a 2-RBI double down the right field line that would force him out of the game. Power throwing right hander Hogan Weaver would come in to try and limit the damage but he would give up two hits in the remainder of the inning including another 2-RBI double and a safety squeeze bunt with two outs that scored the fifth run of the inning. Chico State would hold on and retire 6 of the next 7 SSU batters to take game one 7-1. Nick Simmons, Braeden Holliday, and Logan Douglas were the only other Seawolf hitters to record a hit in the contest. 

DH #2 SSU vs. #16 Chico State:

In game two Torreahno Sweet would continue his hitting streak and start the game off with another leadoff single. Sweet would use his speed and athleticism to steal second and then after a Joshua Medina infield single, Sweet would take off for third and grab his team leading fourth stolen base of the season. With runners on second and third and only one out, the Wildcats starting pitcher would get out of the jam with back-to-back strikeouts to end the early threat once again. The two strikeouts to end the inning would prove momentous for the Wildcats as they would turn around and put up 3 runs on 3 hits in the bottom of the first. Napa Valley JC transfer Tanner Fonoti would make his first start of the season and his second appearance for Sonoma State. Three singles out of the first four batters would plate the games first run. A fielders choice with the bases loaded would plate the second and then with two outs the runner on third would steal home to give Chico a 3-0 lead.

Two innings later the Wildcats would get runners on once again and a fielders choice put out at second would score their fourth run of the game. Fonoti would depart the game with two outs in the third where Ross Goldschlag would come in relief and make his second appearance of the season. Goldschlag would get a clutch strikeout to with the bases loaded to strand three runners and give SSU a chance heading into the fourth. 

Once again the momentous strikeout in the bottom half of the inning from Goldschlag would prove motivating for the Seawolves in top of the fourth as two singles and a wild pitch would put runners on second and third with one out. Senior Nick Simmons would continue his hot streak at the plate as he would single up the middle to score freshman Jared Esparza. After getting one back in the fourth, Esparza would come to the dish and deliver an RBI single with runners on to make it 4-2. Joshua Medina and Torreahno Sweet led the inning off with back-to-back singles to start it all. Logan Douglas would come to the plate and deliver another clutch two out single up the middle that would plate Sweet and in the blink of an eye the Seawolves found themselves down just one with two more at bats to go in the 7-inning game.

Sonoma State would put two runners on in the very next inning but a costly run down would turn into an out from outfielder Desmond Gates. With a runner on second and two outs, Medina would strikeout swinging as the Wildcats got out of another jam. Chico would take that momentum with the run down into the bottom half of the inning and put the Seawolves to bed as they recorded 3 runs on 3 hits to extend their lead once again to four runs. SSU would go down in order in the 7th to end the comeback and give Chico State the doubleheader sweep on the day. Torreahno Sweet and Logan Douglas were the Seawolves most productive hitters on the day as both combined for 5 hits and 2 of SSU's 3 runs. Joshua Medina also got out of his mini slump and after going hitless in the first two games of the series, he would record a three hit game in the teams 7-3 loss and score a run. 

SSU now falls to 3-9 overall and remain winless in conference play. The Seawolves will return to action tomorrow afternoon as they conclude their four game set with the 16th ranked Wildcats in a single game at 12:00 PM. Live stats and stream links can be found at sonomaseawolves.com and all games can be streamed live on the CCAA Network. Be sure to follow your Seawolves on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to get all the latest SSU athletics updates and information. Sonoma State athletics also has launched a new fan app in partnership with From Now On. Download the free app today in both the Apple and Google Play stores by searching Sonoma State Seawolves in the app store. @SonomaSeawolves | #NomaNation