SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco State baseball team opened its 2009 campaign in style on Tuesday with a 6-1 victory over the Academy of Art at Maloney Field. The Gators (1-0) were led by starting pitcher Patrick Haugen, who struck out 10 Urban Knight batters over eight innings, including six in a row in one stretch. Meanwhile,
Jake Moore and
Jeff McCall had two hits apiece to pace the SF State attack.
“Patrick pitched an outstanding game,” said SF State head coach Tony Dress. “He tried to throw a lot of off-speed pitches early on, but really worked off his fastball as the game progressed.”
The Gators jumped on the board 1-0 after
Sean Proni was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the second, forcing in McCall from third.
AAU tied the game in the top half of the fourth on a sacrifice fly; however, SF State plated two runs on a pair of Urban Knight wild pitches in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead for good at 3-1.
The Gators stretched their lead to 4-1 in the seventh after
Keith Garcia hit a one-out triple to left centerfield and later scored on Proni's RBI groundout. Then with one out in the seventh, Moore hit his first home run of the year over the right field fence, putting SF State up by a 5-1 margin.
In the bottom of the eighth, Proni hit a two-out triple to left, while
Bobby Carini reached after being struck by a pitch.
Moments later, Proni advanced home on catcher Florentino Ubengen's throwing error during a double-steal attempt to account for the final score.
The Urban Knights got two runners aboard in the top of the ninth, but reliever
Danny Graybill got Ryan Worley to fly out to center to end the threat.
In addition to his strikeout total, Haugen scattered six hits and walked just one en route to the victory, while Darnell Quinny took the loss for AAU (0-1).
SF State returns to the diamond on Friday, Feb. 6, when it faces Oregon Tech in the first of a four-game weekend set at Maloney Field beginning at 2 p.m. The two teams square off against one another in a doubleheader on Saturday, Feb. 7, at 11 a.m. before wrapping up the series with another single contest on Sunday, Feb. 8, starting at noon.
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