FRESNO — Fresno Pacific managed to win twice Friday night in walk-off fashion as the Sunbirds handed the Warriors two 6-5 scores to start the Central Valley series.
In game one, FPU drew four walks after allowing Stanislaus State to tie the game in the top of the ninth on a walk. In the late-nightcap — the game ended after 11 p.m. — the Sunbirds utilized two Warrior errors to score four runs in their final at-bats to sweep the twinbill.
The four-game set now shifts to Turlock on Saturday for a pair of games starting at 4 p.m. at Warrior Baseball Field.
Friday's game two result spoiled a tremendous outing by
Nick Voumard as he struck out a career-high 12 batters in eight excellent innings. He gave up just two runs on four hits in those eight innings and walked away with a 4-2 lead.
The nightcap loss also featured two Stanislaus homers by
Patrick Mulry and
Kyle Nixon. Nixon's two-run shot in the fifth gave the Warriors a 3-2 lead and Mulry's solo bomb in the ninth extended the Stan State lead to 5-2.
The Warriors had to play from behind in the first game with FPU holding a 4-0 lead after five innings. Two runs in the sixth on a
Erik Colombini two-run double and two more runs in the seventh on extra base-hit RBIs by
Scott Stetson and
Nick Ippolito tied the game at 4-4.
With the score at 5-4, the Warriors loaded the bases with one out in the ninth and
Michael Chavarria drew a walk to tie the game. However, FPU won with a walk-off on four consecutive walks issued by two Stan State pitchers. The final walk was a 10-pitch at bat by FPU's Nick Pate.
Tyler Murphy threw six innings and gave up two earned runs on six hits with six strikeouts for the no decision.
Chris Senn was tagged with the loss.