STOCKTON, Calif. — The San Francisco State and Cal State Monterey Bay baseball teams combined for five home runs but the No. 21 Otters got the best of the Gators on Friday in a CCAA Championships elimination game, winning 9-8 with a ninth-inning base hit.
The Gators fall to 25-21-1 and are eliminated from the tournament while the nationally-ranked Otters improve to 34-20 and advance to Championship Saturday.
- The scheduled 7 p.m. game began at 8:05 p.m. after the Gators won the prior 3 p.m. in dramatic fashion with a ninth-inning rally in a game that lasted three hours and forty minutes. Friday's nightcap lasted three hours and twenty minutes.
- The taxed SF State bullpen, which was already thin due to injuries, turned to reliever Luis Salinas, who made his second start of the season. He was the eighth SF State pitcher to see action in the tournament.
- The Gators' two homers brought the season tally up to 30.
- Jason Hare caught all nine innings for the 26th time this season. He has now caught 328 innings of a possible 392 and two thirds innings. That's 83.5 percent of the time behind the dish.
- Brady Dorn had two more hits and is on an eight-game hit streak. In six career games at Banner Island Ballpark, the senior batted .476 (11-for-23).
- A pair of doubles got the Otters on the board first. TJ Dove – who killed the Gators with a 4-for-4 night with two homers, three runs, and five RBI – drove home the game's first run. A double steal by Riley Cleary and Jack Harris in the bottom of the first moved both runners into scoring position but they were left stranded.
- SF State took the lead in the third thanks to control issues by Otters starter Conor Fabing. Jonah Gonzales and Trevor Greenley singled, then Shaq Robinson, Harris, and Harley Lopez drew consecutive walks to give the Gators a 2-1 lead.
- Dorn singled to make it 3-1 but Fabing got two more outs to limit the damage in the third.
- After a 1-2-3 top of the third, the Gators added on. Hare drew a leadoff walk and Greenley swatted a home run off of the left field foul pole that grew the lead to 5-1.
- The Gators couldn't get a shutdown inning though. A leadoff walk to Kyle Czaplak set the table for a Dove two-run homer that went down the left-field line. Salinas got back-to-back strikeout but Reed Oster extended the inning with a single and Mason Allen homered to left center to knot the game at 5-5.
- Still, SF State responded in the bottom of the fourth. Lopez drew a leadoff walk and Dorn worked a full count and won the at-bat with a two-run, opposite-field laser to right center that put the Gators back up 7-5.
- The lead held until the seventh when the Otters went ahead on Dove's second homer of the game, a two-out shot over the bullpens in left field.
- Again, the Gators answered. Antone Self tripled and scored on a Hare groundout to make it 8-8.
- Jack Higgins got two quick outs in the ninth. The Gators pitched around Dove but Nick Sheehan singled to move Dove into scoring position. Higgins got ahead in the count 0-2 to Brian Morley but Morley fisted a hanging slider to left to put the Otters ahead for good. The Gators had a chance in the bottom of the ninth. Cleary led off with a walk and got to second on a wild pitch. He got to third on Self's sacrifice bunt but Hare chased a high fastball and Gonzales grounded out to the pitcher end it.
- Salinas gave was charged with six runs on five hits in four innings of work but did strike out five.
- Jeff Piver allowed a run in the fifth.
- Higgins (5-5) took the loss. He allowed a pair of runs on five hits in four innings of work. He also struck out five, bringing the All-CCAA selection's season total to 42.
- Fabing allowed five runs and on five hits with five walks and was yanked with one out in the third inning. Kale Leach (2-0) allowed three more runs but struck out seven in five and two thirds innings of relief. Parker Fokken allowed a leadoff walk in the ninth but picked up his fifth save.
The Gators will have to wait until the NCAA Division II selection show to see if the Gators will advance to the NCAA Division II West Regional. Be sure to follow San Francisco State baseball on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at @sfstatebaseball.
