LOS ANGELES — The RV San Francisco State baseball team dropped a close contest to top seed Cal State Monterey Bay 7-6. They bounced back in their elimination game with Chico State to win 14-8 and advance to the NCAA Tournament Championships for a second straight year.
- SF State sit at 33-20 on the season. Similar to the position they were in a year ago, the Gators will need to win twice tomorrow.
- After tying the RBI program record with teammate Daniel Santos the day before, Justin Johnson went 4-for-10 on the day with a double and a home run and added four RBIs on the day for 123 career RBIs.
- Two single season records fell. Daniel Murillo set a single season hit record with his 90 career hit in the Chico State game and Michael Cunningham set a single season record with runs scored. He now sits with 64 runs.
- Every starter got a hit in the Chico State game.
- Cunningham homered in both games to extend his CCAA leading total to 18.
The Gators finally got on the board in the fourth. Allred drew a lead-off walk,
Jackson Wood advanced him forward on a sac bunt and
Justin Johnson advanced him another base with a single to left.
Stephen Espinoza lined out to left to allow Allred to tag up and go home. The Otters had two on in the top of the of fifth with two outs when Garcia singled to the left to bring a runner home. The Gators' power bats got to work in the bottom of the inning when Cunningham hit a no-doubter three run homer over left and Johnson followed up later in the inning with a two-run bomb to give the Gators a 6-1 lead.
The Otters put runners on the corners with no outs. Jalen Sheppard hit a sac to deep center to bring one run in.
Andrew Silva came onto the mound and struck out a batter and induced a ground-out to limit the damage to that. The Otters had runners in scoring position when Silva threw a wild pitch that allowed a runner to score. Monterey Bay had bases loaded in the eighth when Jimmy Garcia cleared the bases with a double and Jacob Dressler brought him home with a single to take the lead. In the bottom of the ninth, the Gators got to runners aboard with Johnson up to bat but he struck out to end the game.
- Ryan Garza put together a strong start, going 5.1 innings and giving up six hits, two runs and two strikeouts.
- Andrew Silva went 1.2 innings and gave up a hit, a run and a walk.
- Scott Bauman came in and tossed eight pitches before being relieved.
- Nathan Shinn came in with bases loaded in the eighth before giving up a double and a single that plated four runs. He was charged with two unearned runs.
- Daniel Flores took the win in relief.
Gators capitalized on early miscues to take a 4-0 lead early. Chico looked to turn a double play but the throw to first went out of play, allowing Murillo to score. Wood drew a walk, and Johnson brought them both home with a double to left center. Espinoza singled to right center to bring Johnson home. A walk and an error put two out without an out and Michael Baker doubled to plate both runners. Cunningham hit a two-run homer in the second to go back up by four. Chico's Troy Kent hit an RBI triple and came home two batters later to cut the lead to 6-4 in the third.
Cunningham hit a lead-off double and came home off a single from Allred to left in the fifth. With bases loaded, Espinoza hit a sac fly. Schrader reached on an error, allowing another runner to score and take a 9-5 lead. Cunningham walked, stole second and advanced on a wild pitch before Allred brought him off an RBI double. Laferriere singled down the left side to extend the Gator lead to 11-5. The Wildcats got a pair of runs back when Troy Kent hit a 2 RBI double. Murillo hit an RBI single in the seventh. He stole second, advanced to third on an error and scored on a ground-out from Cunningham to give the Gators a 13-7 lead. Chico would get one back in the bottom of the inning off an RBI single. Laferriere hit a two-out double in the eighth and came home off a single by Espinoza.
- Alek Trukki made the start but only lasted .1 inning and was on the hook for two runs
- Daniel Smith and Brandon Gatson pitched the next 4.2 innings. Smith threw five strikeouts for a season high.
- With a big lead and the need to keep arms fresh for the next day, Scott Bauman gave the Gators four stellar innings. He gave up three hits and a run and struck out three in his first win on the mound.
The Gators will play Cal State Monterey Bay at 1 pm for the Championship. They'll need to win twice to win it all. Live stats will be available at
sfstategators.com and fans can follow along on FloCollege.
