ROHNERT PARK, CALIF. - On Saturday, April 23rd, the Sonoma State baseball team split the series doubleheader and ended the day in style as
Michael Benz threw his first career complete game in a 7-inning shutout. The Seawolves fell short in game one 6-8 as they nearly completed the 9th inning comeback.
Game 1: SSU (6) vs. CSULA (8)
Right hander
Tanner Ivey would make his 5th start of the season in game one of Saturday's doubleheader. Ivey would battle through 3.2 innings giving up a couple of runs on just 2 hits. A 2-out walk to put the first runner on in the fourth inning would force head coach
John Goelz to go to the pen early and prevent the big inning. Ivey is still working back from injury so Goelz looked to limit his pitches and prevent a big inning early in the game. Sophomore
Colton Peters would make his 7th appearance in relief and induce a ground ball out to get out of the inning and maintain SSU's 3-2 lead.
Peter's would hit a wall though in the 5th as he surrendered a two run shot with two outs that would propel the Golden Eagles in front of SSU, 4-3. Peters would allow a lead off double to start the 6th inning before getting the next two batters to fly out. Sophomore utility player
Niko Tejada would come in relief with two outs and a runner on third attempting to limit the damage. Two singles and a walk though would allow another three runs to come across as LA extended their lead to 7-3.
After giving up another run in the top half of the 7th, the Seawolves would break their 5-inning scoreless streak on a fielder's choice ground out from senior
Desmond Gates. A double from
Nick Simmons in the previous at-bat would put
Christopher Wright on third, allowing him to trot home on the Gates groundout.
Christopher Wright would get a piece of his own and continue the rally in the bottom of the 8th as he doubled with two outs to score
Sean Pauly from second and
Cole Brodnansky all the way from first to make it a two run ball game.
The Seawolves would make it interesting in the 9th as
Nick Simmons would continue his hot bat and single through the right side to leadoff the inning. Two batters later, power hitter
Otis Statum would pinch hit and rip an 0-2 pitch back up the middle to put runners on first and third with one out. A hard hit ground ball to the shortstop from
Sean Pauly would induce the 6-4-3 double play to end the game in dramatic fashion. The Golden Eagles would hang on and take game one of Saturday's doubleheader, 8-6.
Game 2: SSU (2) vs. CSULA (0)
Game two was also known as the
Michael Benz show as the junior right hander would make his 6th start of the season. After settling in as a lengthy reliever in recent weeks, Benz would get called on for the start after using several relief arms in game one of Saturday's doubleheader. The move would pay dividends as Benz had a career outing, throwing a complete game shutout allowing just 4 hits and striking out a season high 7 batters.
A two out single from infielder
Josh Lopez to the second base hole would score Pauly from third and give SSU the early 1-0 lead in the first. The bats would remain relatively quiet but Benz would not as he would retire the Golden Eagles hitters in order 4 of his 7 innings pitched. The biggest jam for Benz came in the fourth inning where he allowed two singles and had runners on first and third. A massive 7-pitch strikeout would follow and leave the runners on with one out. Cal State LA would try to manufacture a run in the tight ball game and put on a safety squeeze with runners on the corner. The LA batter would pop up the bunt though, allowing Benz to snag the pop-up and double off the runner on third to end the inning in dramatic fashion.
Benz would ride that momentum and go on to retire the next 9 LA batter's and record 3 strikeouts on way to the 7-inning complete game shutout. Lopez would strike again in the 6th and give SSU some insurance as he dumped a 1-out single into right center to score
Sean Pauly once again and give the Seawolves a 2-0 lead heading into the 7th. Pauly would finish the game 2-3 from the dish and score both runs in the contest. Pauly and Lopez combined for 4 of the team's 6 hits in the victory.
The Seawolves improve to 18-22 overall and 15-16 in CCAA play after splitting Saturday's doubleheader. SSU will play the series finale Sunday morning at 11:00 AM against the Golden Eagles as they look for their third series victory in a row. 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
