LOS ANGELES, CALIF. - On Saturday and Sunday, April 15th and 16th, the Sonoma State baseball team got some clutch performances from right hander Tanner Fonoti and their offense to pull off back-to-back wins, earning them a 2-2 series split with Cal State LA. On Saturday, the Seawolves would bounce back after a tough 11-run defeat to then shutout Cal State LA in game two of Saturday's doubleheader, 9-0. Despite consistent scoring from the SSU offense, the player of the game would belong to second year player Tanner Fonoti as he threw his second complete game of the season and struck out a career high 8 batters on the day. 

SSU 9-0 CAL STATE LA:

Fonoti has grabbed firm control of the number one spot in the SSU rotation and will look to lead a late season charge for the Seawolves as they will need to rattle off several wins down the stretch in hopes of clinching a spot in the CCAA tournament. Fonoti finished his career outing with seven scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and striking out 8 batters in an efficient 92 pitches. Jared Esparza and Sean Pauly would record two hits each and combine for four runs scored in the contest. Braeden Holliday also had a solid game with two hits and a pair of RBI's. A 6-run 6th inning would put the game to bed as the Seawolves recorded 5 hits in the inning while also taking advantage of two LA errors. Highlights from Fonoti's stellar pitching performance against the Golden Eagles can be found below:




 SSU 11-6 CAL STATE LA:

After going down 1-0 early in the first, the Seawolves would score four unanswered runs to bounce back and take a 4-1 lead. They would then put together a pair of 3-run innings in the 6th and the 7th to take a commanding 11-2 lead. Left hander Michael Panichi would fight off a late Golden Eagles rally and secure an 11-6 victory to salvage the series split. Blake Janowicz did the honors in the series finale with five strong innings, giving up just two runs in his 6th start of the season. 

Offensivley, the Seawolves would record just one hit in the 6th inning but took advantage of some wild LA pitching as they loaded the bases and surrendered three runs in the process. In the 7th, the Golden Eagles pitcher would load the bases with three straight walks and allow Mark Hernandez to record an RBI single scoring Elijah Munoz from third. Two batters later, a clutch two out single from Braeden Holliday would plate two more SSU runners and extend their lead to 11-2 in the 7th. The SSU offense would rack up 15 hits in the contest with sophomore outfielder Jared Esparza leading the way, going 3-for-3 from the plate, scoring two runs, recording an RBI and also drawing two walks to reach base a total of five times. 




LOOKING AHEAD:

The Seawolves win the final two games of the series to improve to 14-17 overall and 8-15 in CCAA play. SSU will return home for their final make up game against Cal State East Bay on Tuesday, April 18th at 1:00 PM. Live stats and stream links can be found at sonomaseawolves.com and you can stream the game LIVE on the CCAA Network.  

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