STOCKTON, Calif. — Senior Chris Smutny's pinch-hit home run tied the game in the eighth inning on Wednesday but the San Francisco State baseball team fell 8-5 in its CCAA Championships first round game on Wednesday at Banner Island Ballpark.
- Smutny's homer was his second of the year and the team's 28th. Smutny sees the ball at Banner Island Ballpark, as he also had one last year during the CCAA Championships.
- Jason Hare caught all nine innings for the 23rd time this season. He has now caught 303 innings of a possible 365 and two thirds innings. That's nearly 83 percent of the time behind the dish.
- Brady Dorn went 3-for-4 and has a hit in nine of his last 10 games and is on a five-game hit streak. In three career games at Banner Island Ballpark, the senior is batting .500 (5-for-10).
- The Gators stranded 10 runners.
- Jack Higgins got two quick outs to begin the game but fell behind in the count versus Kyle Czaplak and hit him with an inside pitch. Czaplak moved into scoring position on a balk and TJ Dove and Brian Morley followed with back-to-back RBI singles to put the Otters up 2-0 early.
- SF State found life in the fourth. Dorn singled up the middle, two batters later Riley Cleary reached on an error, and Antone Self got the Gators on the board with a double down the left field line. Nobody was able to make a play on Jonah Gonzales' infield single. That loaded the bases and a run came home on Jason Hare's game-tying fielder's choice that shortstop Connor Caspersen flipped to second to get the out. That out proved big as the Gators ended up leaving runners on the corners.
- A lack of shutdown innings proved costly all day. In the bottom of the fourth, the Otters answered with a pair of runs. Reed Oster and Nick Sheehan singled and both scored on Kokko Figueiredo's two-out double.
- With two outs in the sixth and a runner at third, Jackson Kritsch charged Kyle Dean's slow roller near the mound. Kritsch gloved and flipped to first but not in time and it ended up as an RBI single for Dean that pushed the Otters' lead to 5-2.
- In the eighth, Cleary reached thanks to a throw in the dirt from across the diamond and Self beat out a bobbled ball at short. Jason Hare reached on a fielder's choice and an errant throw allowed Cleary to score from third. Smutny came in to pinch hit and sent the first pitch he saw over the fence in left center to knot the game at 5-5.
- The lead didn't hold though. The Otters went ahead for good on Figueiredo's two-run homer to the Back Porch in right field. Two batters, Czaplak added a two-out solo shot to make it 8-5.
- Higgins, who garnered All-CCAA Honorable Mention, made his first appearance since leaving the game on April 26 after throwing just 15 pitches. He pitched two and a third innings and allowed the two early runs.
- Jordyn Eglite struck out six in four innings of work. He allowed three runs on seven hits but the Otters made him throw 95 pitches.
- Nate Jenkins (1-2) ot the Gators out of a jam with a pair of outs in the seventh but issued a one-out walk in the eighth. That turned out to be the winning run.
- Dylan Madole gave up a pair of homers in the eighth.
- Greg Steinbeck tossed 95 pitches over six innings and left with a 5-2 lead. Jeffrey Ahern (6-0) gave up three runs, including the Smutny homer, in the eighth but ended up with the win. Parker Fokken allowed a pair of hits but earned his fourth save with a scoreless ninth.
After blowing a two-run lead late and falling 3-2 to sixth-seed Cal Poly Pomona, No. 3 UC San Diego faces elimination as well.The Gators and Tritons, who were rained out during the regular season, will meet in the 11 a.m. game on Thursday, May 9. Be sure to follow San Francisco State baseball on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at @sfstatebaseball.
