POMONA, CALIF. - On Wednesday, May 8th, the Sonoma State baseball team took the field against Cal Poly Pomona in game one of the CCAA Tournament, making their second tournament appearance in the last three seasons. The Seawolves were riding a wave of momentum into the tournament having won 6 of their final 8 games to clinch the final postseason spot.
Lefty
Ethan Glassman would get the start for SSU and face off against the conference pitcher of the year for the Broncos. Despite the great offensive numbers in the final two regular season series, the Broncos starter held the Seawolves offense to just one hit through five innings. Glassman ran into trouble in the first two innings with an error and three walks. He would walk in a run in the first and then Cal Poly Pomona would use the long ball to jump out to a 3-0 lead in the second.
Junior relief pitcher
Marcellus Henry would take the mound to start the third inning and willed the Seawolves back into the game with four scoreless innings of work. This would go down as Henry's best outing of the year and it could not come at a better time as the Seawolves offense would finally get on the board in the sixth.
After retiring the first two batters, the Broncos starter would show some signs of slowing down as
Kenny Decelle would rope a double off the left field wall to give the Seawolves some 2-out life. With first base open and the teams best power threat up to the plate,
Christopher Wright would get pitched around and put on with a four-pitch walk. Senior
Joey Loveless would follow for SSU and hit a high chopper to third. With great hustle, the third baseman would be forced to rush the throw and as a result it would get away from him and up the line, allowing Decelle to come around and score from second. Loveless and Wright would advance another base as well on the throwing error, bringing
Mark Hernandez to the plate with a chance to tie the game.
After swinging at the first two pitches, Hernandez would rifle a high fastball back up the middle and score Wright and Loveless to send the Seawolves dugout into a frenzy as he tied the game up at three a piece in the sixth inning. Henry would work around a 1-out double in the bottom half of the inning and induce back-to-back fly ball outs to keep the game tied heading into the seventh.
With a brand new ball game, head coach
John Goelz and his group were in great position with senior reliever
Nik Kamages poised to take the mound in the seventh. Kamages would indeed strut out to the mound in that seventh inning but the Broncos were ready for him. The leadoff batter would connect on the very first pitch for a double to the left field wall. After a sac bunt to move him over, the Seawolves would be forced to bring the infield in with the go-ahead run on third.
Kamages would jam the batter for a weak flare to shallow left field but with the infield in, shortstop
Daniel Monti was not in position to make the catch and the ball would fall to allow the run to score, giving Pomona a 4-3 lead.
After a stolen base, the next batter would single on another bloop hit to shallow right field to extend their lead to 5-3. It was not the ideal first inning for Kamages but he got weak contact and got out of the inning with a double play ball to keep the deficit to just two runs.
In the eighth, the Broncos would put the game to bed with three more runs. With runners on second and third, the Sonoma State catcher would dig out a ball in the dirt and try to back pick the runner on first but sail the throw into right field. The Broncos runner on second would come in to score to make it 6-3. The next batter would triple to straight away center field and then a sac fly would give the Broncos a 5-run lead heading into the ninth.
The Seawolves would show no quit though as things got hairy in the ninth inning for Cal Poly Pomona. Back-to-back 2-out singles would help load the bases for senior
Sean Pauly and he would put together a solid 7-pitch at bat. Pauly made hard contact all afternoon and would send a well hit ball to deep center, but it would stay in the park and be caught for the final out of the game.
A herculean effort down the stretch allowed the Seawolves to get into the conference tournament but their season would come to an end with a 8-3 loss to Cal Poly Pomona.
Mark Hernandez and
Shane Callison combined for four hits on the day and Hernandez had the big 2-out hit back in the sixth inning.
Congratulations to the Sonoma State baseball program on a great season and another postseason appearance. This year's appearance stood as the 14th since joining the CCAA, all under head coach
John Goelz.
LOOKING AHEAD
Sonoma State finishes the 2024 season at 25-26 overall and 19-21 in conference play after their conference tournament defeat to Cal Poly Pomona. Full game recaps and stats can be found at sonomaseawolves.com.
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
