CARSON, CALIF. – On Sunday, May 1st, the Sonoma State baseball team fell in another tightly contested slugfest in the series finale against the Toros of Cal State Dominguez Hills. Sophomore right hander Tanner Ivey would make his 11th appearance and 6th start for the Seawolves in the series finale. Both teams would trade punches early on as they played their way to a 3-3 tie after two innings. 

1ST & 2ND INNING:

Back-to-back sac fly's from veteran Joshua Medina and first baseman Christopher Wright would score Otis Statum and Sean Pauly. Statum drew a walk to leadoff the game and Pauly would single to right field to put runners on first and second. A 2-run shot though in the bottom of the first would end the Seawolves lead and tie the game up at 2 a piece. 
 
Some of the teams hottest bats would come to the plate in the second and give SSU the lead once again. Back-to-back singles from Torreahno Sweet and Nick Simmons would put runners in scoring position. After a sac bunt moving Sweet and Simmons up a base, a single from Otis Statum would score Sweet from second and give Sonoma State a 3-2 lead, their second lead early in the contest. A leadoff hit batter would come back to bite the Seawolves as the Toros would get a sac fly to score their runner on third and tie the game up, 3-3 in the bottom of the second. 

SSU's starter Tanner Ivey would depart after two innings for sophomore right hander Hogan Weaver. Weaver would pitch a clean 3rd inning but run into some trouble in the 4th as he gave up 2 hits including an RBI double. Junior transfer Tanner Fonoti would come in relief midway through the inning but a sac fly the very next batter would plate the Toros 5th run and give them a 5-3 lead after four innings. 

7TH INNING:

The Seawolves would grab a run back in the 6th after singles from Josh Lopez and Torreahno Sweet would put runners on. A throwing error would advance them each a base and make it second and third with one out. Nick Simmons would hit a sac fly to center to get the job done and score Lopez. The Toros would get that run back though in the bottom half of the 6th as Fonoti would give up three hits in the inning. Fonoti would help himself though as he would snag a liner right back at him and double off the runner at first base to end the inning and limit the damage to just one run. 

The Seawolves would have a big 7th inning though and even retake the lead to give themselves a chance to hold on late in the game. The top of the lineup would start the 7th as Statum would single and record another hit on the weekend to start things off. After advancing to second on a pass ball, Sean Pauly would single down the right field line to score Statum and make it a one run game. 

A single from Medina and a walk drawn by Wright would load the bases no outs. The Toros pitcher though would limit the damage and induce back-to-back fly outs and not allow a run to come across the plate. With two outs though one of the hottest hitters would come to the plate and deliver. Outfielder Torreahno Sweet would single to left field and with the runners moving on contact with two outs, Medina and Pauly would each come around to score as Sweet gave SSU a 7-6 lead after their 3-run 7th inning.   

FINAL: SSU (7) vs. CSUDH (11)

The Toros continued to claw back though as they would score another pair of runs in the bottom half of the 7th to retake the lead. Fonoti would depart after finishing the 7th and make way for utility player Niko Tejada as he made his 6th appearance of the season. After a 1-out walk, the net Dominguez Hills batter would jump on the first pitch he saw and smash a 2-run home run to left field to give the Toros firm control of the game and put the Seawolves away for good. Dominguez Hills would put up three runs in the 8th and go on to win the game and series finale 11-7. 

SSU's offense remains in good form though as they out hit the Toros 14-11. Statum recorded another multi-hit game on the weekend while Sweet would have a career day and go a perfect 5-5 from the dish, record 2 RBI's and score 1 run. Sweet puts himself over the .300 mark as he has recorded multiple hits in 6 of his last 7 games and finishes the weekend with a home run, 9 hits, and 7 RBI's.      

The Seawolves fall to 20-25 overall and 17-19 in CCAA play after falling three games to one to Cal State Dominguez Hills. The Seawolves still control their own fate though and will have a conference tournament spot on the line next weekend as they take on Cal State San Bernardino. The series will start on Thursday, May 5th, at 1:00 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