Box Score
TURLOCK — Talk about not getting rattled early.
Jeremy McDonald settled down from a no-so-smooth start to end up nearly throwing a complete game as he and the Warriors beat San Francisco State, 6-1, Friday afternoon at Warrior Baseball Field.
McDonald was one batter shy of a complete game, as he and
Ryan McDaniel, combined for the three-hitter victory. The Warriors scattered 12 hits and improved to 5-3 overall and 1-0 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association.
The CCAA home opener win marks the 10th consecutive season that the Warriors won at least one game during their first home date during conference play (10-1). In 2013, the Warriors split a doubleheader on conference opening date at Warrior Baseball Field.
Three Warriors —
Colton Beatty,
Brent Hall and
Marcus Mastrobuoni — each collected two hits to lead the offensive charge. Stanislaus also capitalized on two SF State errors to score four runs in the seventh to extend the lead.
Hall, who went 2-for-4, scored twice and Mastrobuoni doubled to deep center field in that seventh inning to plate a run.
Dayton Mellor also doubled in a run in the inning.
In the Warriors second,
Eriksen Dickens doubled down the left-field line to drive in Hall, who had reached on a throwing error. Dickens later scored on a RBI single to right by
Colt McLaughlin.
Those two runs turned out to be what McDonald needed to settle in.
Uncharacteristically, the southpaw starter was wild in the first two innings as he struggled to find the strike zone. A leadoff walk to start the game issued to SFSU's Carter Loud ended up to be the Gators' lone run. Loud eventually came around to score on a Bryce Cherry sac fly that followed a Grady Espinosa single.
McDonald walked the first two batters in the second inning before getting Dillon Meyer to pop-up on a bunt attempt. A double-play grounder from Fernando Escobar allowed the Warriors to escape the jam.
From that point on, McDonald was nearly untouchable. McDonald sat 10 straight Gators down in order until an one-out fielding error to allow a SFSU baserunner in the sixth. However, that Gator was quickly erased from the base path on another double-play grounder.
Between the third and the seventh innings, McDonald faced just one batter over the minimum — a single by Mark Lindsay with one out in the seventh. In the eighth, after a leadoff single by Meyer, McDonald got two more fielder's choice grounders and a fly out to end another SFSU threat.
Trying to toss the complete game, McDonald started the ninth but hit the leadoff batter. A ground out and a strikeout later, he walked Matt Vera to end his day with 114 pitches.
McDaniel threw two pitches to the final batter to end the inning with runners on first and second.
In the end, McDonald improved to 2-0 in three starts. He gave up just one run on three hits and lowered his ERA to 1.80.
San Francisco State (5-6, 0-1 CCAA) starter Preston Tarter pitched 6 1/3 innings and allowed five runs on eight hits to pick up the loss.
The series now shifts to San Francisco for a pair at Maloney Field on Saturday. First pitch of game one is at 11 a.m.
