3/16/2008 2:51:02 PM
TURLOCK -- A near record first inning allowed the No. 12 Cal State Stanislaus baseball team finish off its fifth-consecutive series victory and extend its winning streak to five with a 14-9 win over Cal State Monterey Bay Sunday at Warrior Field.
The sweep is the second CCAA sweep this season for the Warriors after sweeping San Francisco State in February. It is the fourth-consecutive CCAA series victory for the Warriors, who have yet to lose a conference series. The Warriors are now 21-5 overall and 14-2 in the CCAA. The Otters fall to 7-16 overall and 5-11 in CCAA play.
Thanks in large part to eight free passes, the Warriors put up 11 runs in the first inning Sunday, two runs short of the record 13 runs scored in one inning by the Warriors against Menlo College in 1988. The first seven Warrior batters reached base, six of them via walks, all issued by Otter starter Adam Lanthier, who would end up surrendering six earned runs on just one hit without recording an out.
Tom Long struck out and Jeff Bellotti hit a sacrifice fly to foul territory in right field, and the Otters appeared to be getting out of a jam after giving up four runs, but three straight hits, including a double by David Contreras and a triple by Dennis Wolfe, a hit batsmen and another single by Jake Oketani ran the score up in a hurry, as the Warriors took an 11-0 lead.
Wolfe and Oketani both ended the day going 3-for-4 with two runs scored. Wolfe knocked in three runs and Oketani had two RBIs. Contreras went 2-for-4 with two doubles, three runs scored and two RBIs.
Not to be outdone, the Otters started the top of the second with three hits and a walk. The hot-hitting Andrew Marquardt, who entered the game batting .406, led off the inning with a double. Shea Davis also doubled later in the inning to drive in a run, and Cal State Monterey Bay suddenly showed life with the score 11-4.
The Warriors got two of those runs back in the bottom of the second when Jeff Bellotti led off with a single and scored on a double by Contreras. Contreras came home on an RBI single by Dennis Wolfe to make the score 13-4
Warrior starter Matt Costa settled down and retired the next 11 of 13 batters, but the Otters would bang out 11 hits on the day, scoring four runs in the second, two unearned runs in the sixth and three in the eighth to make the score 13-9 in favor of the Warriors. Cal State Monterey Bay sent the tying run to the plate in the top of the eighth, loading the bases with one out, but Warrior reliever Andrew DeMott came in and got a strikeout and a groundout to end the threat.
Kyle Loretelli went 0-for-3 on Sunday with a walk and a hit-by-pitch to end his hitting streak at 12 games. A total of 10 pitchers and 28 position players were used in the game by the teams combined.
The Warriors head out on the road next week to Nampa, Idaho, for their first series of the season to be played entirely away from home. The four-game non-conference series against Northwest Nazarene University begins at 3 p.m. Thursday with a single game. A doubleheader beginning at 11 a.m. Friday and a single game scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday will close out the series.