SAN MARCOS, CALIF. - On Sunday, April 7th, the Sonoma State baseball team bounced back in a huge way to get two wins over Cal State San Marcos and keep their postseason hopes alive. The Seawolves dropped the first two games of the series on Saturday and gave up some crooked numbers, but responded with a 16-run victory in game one on Sunday and then a clutch 1-run victory in the finale to remain well in the hunt for the 6th and final postseason spot.
SSU 18-2 CSUSM
In game one on Sunday, the Seawolves offense came alive with a pair of 5-run innings to jump out to a 10-0 lead after three innings.
Christopher Wright smashed a 2-run homer for his team leading 8th of the season and then
Shane Callison singled to left to tack on two more to end the first inning.
In the third, SSU would take advantage of a pair of errors and load the bases. The Cougars pitcher would walk in a run and then Wright would deliver another two RBI's with his second hit of the game to extend their lead to 10-0. On the mound, freshman
Luke Ivanoff made yet another start and went four strong innings, giving up just 2 runs and striking out 5 batters.
Long Beach City College transfer
Marcellus Henry would follow with two hitless innings to put himself in line for his 3rd win of the season.
Nik Kamages also threw two innings giving up just a single hit and then lefty
Noah Souza would record the final two outs by way of the K and wrap up the 18-2 victory.
Sean Pauly and
Cooper Callison added on in the 9th with RBI singles to push their lead to 16 runs.
SSU 7-6 CSUSM
In the series finale, SSU continued their offensive explosion with a 4-run first inning. They loaded the bases with hits from
Sean Pauly and
Kenny Decelle and then had clutch 2-out RBI singles from
Chris Ortiz and
Zach White. They would bat around in the first inning and go on to score in each of the first four innings, jumping out to a 7-0 lead.
Tanner Fonoti made his 8th start of the season and grinded through five innings of work. He would give up 4 runs on 8 hits but put himself in line for the win after completing the 5th inning. Kamages would make another appearance for the Seawolves after throwing two innings in the first game of the day. Understanding the importance of the game with the end of the regular season fast approaching, head coach
John Goelz would go to one of his most trusted pitchers to get six outs and salvage the series split.
Kamages would get out of a jam in the 6th after giving up two singles to maintain their 7-4 lead. Things would get a little hairy in the 7th though as the Cougars rallied with a solo home run and an RBI double to cut the lead down to one. With two outs and runners on second and third, Goelz would choose to intentionally walk the next Cougars batter who had two hits in the game.
With the bases loaded and the game on the line, the next batter would go after the first pitch and fly out to left to end the game and seal the thrilling 7-6 victory for the Seawolves. Kamages picked up his team leading 3rd save of the season and continues to be dominant out of the bullpen for SSU. Pauly and Decelle combined for 4 hits in the top two spots of the order and
Mark Hernandez finished the game 2-3, giving him 6 hits on the day.
LOOKING AHEAD
Sonoma State improves to 16-18 overall and 10-14 in conference play after their series split with Cal State San Marcos. The Seawolves sit in 8th place in the conference standings, just two games out of the 6th place spot. They will return home this week to take on Cal State LA starting on Friday, April 12th 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.
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