STOCKTON, Calif. — The San Francisco State baseball team kept its season alive with a 5-1 victory over No. 4 UC San Diego on Thursday in the first elimination game of the CCAA Championships at Banner Island Ballpark.
The top-seeded Tritons, who lost to sixth-seed Cal Poly Pomona, and the Gators, who fell to second-seed Cal State Monterey Bay, both faced elimination in the double-elimination format and the Gators came out on top in the two teams' only meeting of the season. The Tritons will still advance to the NCAA Division II West Regional but will have to wait for the selection show to find out their seeding.
- The Gators got what was probably their strongest defensive outing of the year. The Gators did not commit an error and turned a pair of double plays that were both started by Gators starting pitcher Riley Cleary.
- Jason Hare caught all nine innings for the 24th time this season. He has now caught 312 innings of a possible 374 and two thirds innings. That's over 83 percent of the time behind the dish.
- Brady Dorn has gone 3-for-4 the past two outings and is on a six-game hit streak. In four career games at Banner Island Ballpark, the senior is batting .571 (8-for-14).
- Thursday marked the first-ever CCAA Championships win for the Gators, who are making their second appearance in as many years.
- After a 1-2-3 inning, the Gators came up to bat as the designated home team. Jack Harris snapped an 0-for-13 streak at the plate with a leadoff single. He rounded first and got caught between first and second but a bad throw allowed him to slide in safely at second. With one out, Dorn got the Gators on the board with a double down the left field line.
- Antone Self sent a two-out single up the middle to make it 2-0.
- The Gators stranded a pair in the second and at the time it seemed like it might prove costly in such a tightly-contested game.
- UCSD scored its only run of the game in the seventh on Blake Baumgartner's solo homer to the Back Porch in right field.
- SF State added an insurance run in the seventh. Hare singled, Chris Smutny laid down a sacrifice, and Jonah Gonzales delieverd a two-out, pinch-hit RBI single to center.
- SF State broke it open in the eighth. Harley Lopez drew a leadoff walk from reliever Michael Mitchell and Dorn sent a triple to the warning track in the right-field gap.
- The Tritons intentionally walked Self to set up a potential double play ball but instead Hare laid down a suicide squeeze, which allowed Dorn to score to make it 5-1.
- The Gators outfielders had a hard time tracking a high popup against the clouds and the ball dropped in for a double but Jeff Piver got a popup to third and Self settled under it to end it.
- Cleary (4-3) was excellent for the Gators. He threw 13 first pitch strikes and struck out three. A Tritons baserunner didn't reach third base until the seventh inning and that came by way of the Baumgartner home run. Cleary finished his day with a foul out.
- Jeff Piver came out of the bullpen in relief and was equally as effective en route to his first save. Over the final two and two thirds innings, Piver struck out four and scattered three hits. He got a flyball to left to end the seventh and strand a runner at third to keep the Gators in front, 2-1.
- The Tritons threw their top starter, Brandon Weed (9-1). Weed, who was named the CCAA's Most Valuable Pitcher, was formidable. He allowed three runs, including the two runs in the first, on seven hits over seven innings. He also struck out seven but suffered his first loss as a Triton. The Gators jumped on Mitchell, who was charged with two runs on one hit in just a third of an inning. Jonah Dipoto recorded two outs.
The Gators return to Banner Island Ballpark on Friday, May 10 with their opponent to be determined. Be sure to follow San Francisco State baseball on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at @sfstatebaseball.
