SEASIDE, CALIF. - On Friday, March 17th, the Sonoma State baseball team headed south to resume CCAA action as they took on Cal State Monterey Bay in a four game series. After playing in just their first conference game against Cal State East Bay last weekend and multiple games being canceled due to California storms, head coach
John Goelz and his squad would look to grab their first conference win against the Otters down in Monterey County.
GAME ONE SSU 3-13 CSUMB:
In game one of the four game series on Friday, the Seawolves would give up an 8-run 7th in what was a back-and-forth game up until that point. The Otters would jump out to a 5-1 lead after just three innings, but a 2-run shot from first year catcher
Chris Ortiz would put the Seawolves within a couple in the 5th inning. Ortiz would turn around a fastball to deep left center field for his second of the season (correction on tweet).
The wheels would come off in the 7th for Sonoma State as Monterey Bay strung together 6 hits in the inning good for 8 runs as they took a commanding 13-3 lead. Despite the big inning, SSU saw some timely hitting and quality pitching from right hander
Ross Goldschlag who came in relief and threw 3.2 innings giving up just 2 hits and 1 run earlier in the game.
GAME TWO SSU 6-8 CSUMB:
In the first game of Saturday's doubleheader, the Seawolves would dig themselves another early hole as the Otters put together 5 hits and 4 runs in the first two innings. Senior right hander
Jake Dent would get his first start of the season after coming in relief in his previous three outings. After the early runs for Monterey, Dent would settle down and retire 6 straight batters, setting up SSU for a huge 5-run 5th inning representing their first lead of the series.
All the damage would come with two outs as the Seawolves strung together four straight hits after a 2-out walk to take a 5-4 lead. With runners on first and third, a well executed safety squeeze from
Daniel Cabral would score
Elijah Munoz from third for SSU's first run. Then outfielder
Kenny Decelle would single through the left side to score
Sean Pauly to make it 4-2.
After a pitching change with two runners still on, second year outfielder
Braeden Holliday would waste no time and mash the 2-0 pitch to right center field, giving the Seawolves a 5-4 lead. The 3-run shot would go down as Holliday's second of the year. Holliday finished tied for second on the team with 7 homers last season as he was one of the team's most consistent hitters.
The Otters bats would stay hot though as they would quickly take back the lead with a pair of runs in the 6th and the 8th.
Christopher Wright would record his team leading 4th double of the season as he scored
Mark Hernandez in the 8th to make things interesting but the Otters would hang on with a clean 9th inning to take game two of the series 8-6.
GAME THREE SSU 9-10 CSUMB:
In the second game of Saturday's doubleheader, right hander
Tanner Fonoti would get his team leading 4th start of the season. The Napa Valley JC transfer has been a consistent starter for the Seawolves in his two seasons of action and he would get off to a solid start giving up just two runs in the first three innings. Fonoti worked his way around some trouble to avoid big innings early and struck out a pair to help his own cause.
In the third, SSU would explode for a 5-run inning off 5 hits. The bats started to pick up in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader and seemed to carry over early in the 7-inning contest. The first three runners would reach base and back-to-back doubles from
Jared Esparza and
Cooper Callison would help score a pair. Later in the inning,
Braeden Holliday would continue his hot weekend and belt his second homer of the day, a 2-run shot to left field to cap off the 5-run inning. Holliday leads the team with 3 home runs on the season.
Unfortunately, big innings for the Seawolves pitching staff seemed to be a common trend this series as Fonoti would unravel a bit and contribute to an 8-run inning for the Otters in the 4th. Senior right hander
Michael Benz would come in and record the first two outs of the inning before handing things off to left
Michael Panichi. Monterey Bay would come out of the inning with a 10-5 advantage.
With the way the Seawolf offense was progressing, this game was far from over as SSU got right back into it with a run in the 5th and 3 runs in the 6th, making it just a 1-run game. Shortstop
Daniel Monti would fly around the bases in the 5th with a leadoff double and a stolen base. He would eventually score on a wild pitch.
Then in the 6th, the Seawolves would rally with two outs to load the bases and score a runner off a hit batter. Junior outfielder
Kenny Decelle would then come to the plate and pull a single to left field to plate two more runners. The Seawolves comeback would fall short as the SSU batters went down in order with two strikeouts in the 7th, allowing the Otters to hang on for the wild 10-9 victory. Junior left hander
Michael Panichi would finish the 5th and 6th inning after replacing Benz in the 4th, giving up just two hits on 43 pitches.
LOOKING AHEAD:
The Seawolves fall to 6-6 overall and remain winless in conference action. They will look to grab the series finale tomorrow afternoon as they conclude their four game set with Monterey Bay at 2:00 PM. Live stats and stream links can be found at sonomaseawolves.com and you can stream the game 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
