ROHNERT PARK, CALIF. - On Friday, April 8th, the Sonoma State baseball team opened up a home series with Stanislaus State after splitting their previous three series against Cal State East Bay, Cal Poly Pomona, and bay area rival SF State. After back-to-back 4+ inning starts for right hander Tanner Fonoti, he would start on the bump for the Seawolves in his 7th appearance of the season. Fonoti would give up just 1 run in 4 innings of work but 5 straight balls to start the 5th inning would force head coach John Goelz to make the move to the pen and bring in right hander Michael Benz to limit the damage. Benz would induce a fly ball out the very next batter and then a record a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning and get out of the jam. 

A leadoff single from catcher Cole Brodnansky in the 2nd would set the table for the SSU offense. After a wild pitch put Brodnansky on second, lefty first baseman Christopher Wright would rip a single to center field and score the hustling Brodnansky from second to give Sonoma State the early 1-0 lead. After giving one back in the 3rd to tie up the game, the Seawolves would take advantage of some Warriors mistakes in the field and put up 2 runs on no hits in the bottom half of the 4th. Josh Lopez would draw a leadoff walk and then a high chopper from Cole Brodnansky to the third baseman would make for a tough force out at second. The throw would get away from the Warriors second baseman as Lopez and Brodnansky would each move up a base on the throwing error and set the table for power hitter Otis Statum. Statum would battle in the at bat and hit a grounder pass the pitcher up the middle, deep enough to score Lopez from third and give the Seawolves the lead once again. In the very next at bat, Christopher Wright would get a hold of a ball and send one to deep center field, nearly off the wall, but deep enough to score Brodnansky from third and give him the sacrafice fly RBI. 

Benz would retire the first 7 batters he faced in his relief but give up a 2-out homer in the 7th to make it just a 1-run game. Benz would run into some trouble again the 8th after a 2-out walk and then a double to left field pass a diving Sean Pauly would put runners on second and third. After a mound visit from Goelz to calm down the junior transfer from USF, Benz would battle back in a 5-pitch at bat and get a fly out to right to end the threat. In the bottom half of the inning, SSU would get an insurance run off of a 2-out balk from the Warriors relief pitcher. Cole Brodnansky was hit by a pitch to start the inning and worked his way to third off of a wild pitch and fielders choice. Brodnansky would trot home to extend Sonoma State's lead to 4-2 before Nick Simmons flew out to right to end the inning.

Instead of allowing Benz to go a 5th inning, John Goelz made the move to trusty utility player and senior Joshua Medina as he would make his 6th appearance on the mound this season. Medina would fall into a full count on the very first Stanislaus State batter but get him to fly out to right to start the inning. Medina would only need four more pitches to end the game as he induced back-to-back fly ball outs to Desmond Gates in center to end the game and pick up his 3rd save of the season. Benz would finish with 4 innings of work giving up just 1 run on 2 hits. Christopher Wright would deliver 2 hits and 2 RBI's to lead the Seawolves in his 9th start of the season.  

The Seawolves improve to 11-19 overall and 8-13 in CCAA play after their series opening win over the Warriors. SSU will return  to Seawolf Diamond in the series doubleheader tomorrow morning with first pitch slated for 11:00 AM. 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