CHICO, Calif. — The San Francisco State baseball team's offense found a spark and lifted the team to a pair of wins over Chico State to take the series. Game one saw the offense give the Gators enough of a cushion to take a 13-9 victory. In game two, Ian Sullivan got the Gators off to a fantastic start on the mound in a 9-2 victory.
- SF State improves to 12-6 and 6-2 in the CCAA while Chico State falls to 8-5 and 3-5 in the CCAA. The series win is the first road series win of the season.
- The Gators finished with 28 hits on the day.
- The five doubles in game one represented a new season high. Justin Johnson finished with three on the day including two in game one.
- After coughing up nine errors between two games the day before, the Gators only had one error on the day. They also turned a pair of double plays in game two.
Game One
Gators drew three straight walks to open the game, forcing Chico to make a pitching change.
Daniel Santos drew and RBI walk.
Anthony Alvarez hit the ball to right field to bring two more in.
Andrew Silva drove Santos in with a Sac Fly.
Cole Thompson hit a single to bring in the fifth run of the first inning.
Johnson hammered a ball down the left field line for a 2 RBI double and scored on a sac fly to bring the lead to 8-0 in the second.
Back-to-back extra base hits allowed Chico to score their first two runs of the game in the second. The Wildcats would have bases loaded with one out, but
David Eichhorn threw a strikeout and induced a fly ball to get the Gators out of a jam.
Johnson hit his second double of the game to plate a runner in the fourth. Back-to-back doubles from Thompson and
Armando Murillo plated another runner in fifth to go up 10-2 and
Jacob French brought in the 11
th run on a fielder's choice.
Chico scratched across another run in the sixth, but the Gators responded with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh to extend the lead to 13-3. Chico added another run in the seventh and hit a grand slam in the eighth to cut the Gators' lead down to five. A sac fly allowed another runner to cross home plate for Chico. With a lead-off batter on in the ninth,
Andrew Silva came onto the mound to pitch and preserve the 13-9 lead for the win.
- David Eichhorn (3-0) provided six quality innings of work in the win. He gave up nine hits but only three runs while tossing five strikeouts.
- Garrett Jensen made his first appearance of the season, going an inning with one strikeout, one hit and one run.
- Christian Casillas and Trent Lopez both made appearances and gave up three and two runs respectively.
- Mickey Radonavich pitched a scoreless frame and Andrew Silva moved from first to the mound to close out the game.
- Dylan Day took the loss for Chico.
Game Two
Derek Laferriere hit a double in his first at bat, stole third and was brought home on a single to left field.
Nicholas Allred hit a double down the left field line to clear loaded bases.
Thompson and Murillo hit back-to-back RBI singles to give the Gators a 6-0 lead through one.
Jacob French hit a two-run bomb over the right field. Johnson hit a double on the next at bat and Santos drove him in to go up 9-0.
Chico hit a two-out RBI triple in the bottom of the seventh and the runner scored on a wild pitch to end the shut out but didn't get more than that.
- Ian Sullivan (1-0) made his first career start on the mound, shinning through five scoreless innings. He gave up four hits and a walk while throwing a pair of strikeouts. The only adversity he faced was in the second inning with bases loaded and two outs but a ground out to first ended the threat.
- Ethan Remmers pitched two innings in relief, tossing a pair of strikeouts while giving up three hits an two runs.
- Eddie Curley took the loss for Chico.
The Gators return home for a series with Cal State Monterey Bay starting at 2 p.m. on Friday, March 8. Both teams currently are tied for second in the CCAA. Live stats will be available through
sfstategators.com/livestats_bsb and live video will be available at the CCAAnetwork.
