CARSON--- SF State Gators' baseball team lost their 2010 California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) opener 8-2 to the Cal State Dominguez Hills Toros (5-3, 1-0 CCAA) this afternoon at Toro Field in Carson. The Gators did manage 12 hits including three off the bat of senior infielder Nick Nyman, who finished the day 3 for 4 with a run scored.

 

The Toros jumped out to a 3-0 lead off Gator starter, Spencer Kreisberg (Tigard, Oregon, Los Medanos College) with Kevin Pillar's two-run double to left field keying the bottom of the first inning. Both Abel Medina and Barrett Ceverha scored off of Pillar's double to give the hosts a 3-0.

 

Cal State Dominguez Hills added two more runs in the bottom of the third inning after Pillar's double down the left field line scored the first one and he later scored on an error by the Gators to give the Toros a 5-0 lead.

 

SF State scored its first run when Nick Bowerman (Oakley, California, Mount Mercy College) double drove in Sean Proni (Valencia, California, College of Marin), who also reached base on a double. Then in the next inning, Nick Nyman (Susanville, California, Lassen College) opened up the Gator top of the frame with a single open the middle and later scored on Ryan Williams (Woodland, California, Yuba College) sacrifice fly to make it 5-2 Toros.   

 

The Gators had a chance to cut in the Toro lead more in their half of the sixth inning. Proni opened up the inning reaching first on a hits batsman and advanced to second on a one-out single up the middle by Matt Quintero. Reliever Sean Wardour gto the next two Gators batters to strike out and ground out to leave the Gators stranded on base.

 

SF State had another chance in its half of the eighth, but left three runners on bases with two outs as Matt Phillips came in to strike out the final Gator to leave the tying run stranded on first.

 

The Toros broke the game open in the eighth as they scored three runs on four hits including a two-run single by Medina to take a 8-2 lead going into the ninth. Phillips pitched a scoreless ninth to preserve the 8-2 series opener victory for Cal State Dominguez Hills.

 

Bowerman and Geoff Downing (Half Moon Bay, California, New Mexico State University)each had two hits for the Gators while Spencer Kreisberg took the loss for SF State, falling to 0-2. He struck out six batters and walked two in six innings while giving up nine hits and five runs.

Box Score

 

Kody Kurowski (1-0) picked up the win for the Toros, pitching 5 innings, giving up 10 hits and two runs. He also struck out three and walked one. Three Toros pitched four innings of scoreless relief. Cal State Dominguez Hills had 14 hits including three by Medina and two each by Benavidez, Pillar, Ceverha, and Brian Sturgis.

 

The two teams will continue their four-game series tomorrow morning at 11am for a doubleheader at Toro Field.