TURLOCK — The Stanislaus State baseball team closed out the 2016 campaign with a win on senior day and Mother's Day, but not before a wild finish, especially in the eighth inning.

In any case, the Warriors defeated Chico State, 4-3 to play the spoiler role as Stan State finished with an overall record of 25-23 — the program's first winning season since 2012. The Warriors also won a series over rival Chico State for the first time since 2008. Stanislaus also finished the season with a 20-7 record at home.

What it meant for Chico State was instead of winning the CCAA North Division and getting the No. 2 seed in the postseason tournament, the Wildcats end up third in the division and will be seeded No. 6., and face top-seed Cal Poly Pomona Wednesday at 11 a.m. in Stockton.

But on senior day, the Warriors were poised to finish on a positive note jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first three innings behind a good start by freshman Micah Hall. A two-run triple by Scott Stetson in the second gave the Warriors a 2-0 lead and they added a third run in the third when Nick Ippolito scored on a passed ball.

Then, the rest of the game was rather uneventful compared to what happened in the eighth inning — both top and bottom half.

In the top of the eighth, a leadoff single and a walk set-up first and second situation. A pitching changing later, a comebacker was tossed away past third base with a run scoring. Another wild sequence of plays happened a little later. After two more walks (which scored the second run) and a flyout, a bloop shot off the bat of Cody Snider down the left-field line scored Sonny Cortez to tie the game at 3-3. However, Ippolito alertly threw the ball to third for a force out and Gino Franceschetti appearently forced out Ben Gamba a second. However, he was called safe.

Luckily for Stan State, the outcome of that play did not resulted in more runs as Travis Johnston got a flyout to right to leave the bases full of Wildcats.

Now, the home half of the eighth.

First, Stetson was called out on a grounder deep in the shortstop hole when he looked to be safe. A strikeout by Chico reliever Stuart Bradley later, the Warriors rallied.

Erik Colombini, Patrick Mulry and Ippolito hit three consecutive singles to load the bases. Then Bradley hit Franceschetti to send home the go-ahead run. It was Bradley's first hit-by-pitch of the year.

Nick Voumard then threw a perfect ninth inning for his third save of year — second in the series — to end the game.



Stanislaus State wrapped up the 2016 season 6-3 in its final nine games. The Warriors closed it out with four wins in the last five, including a series win over Chico State. The 16-20 CCAA record was the program's best since going 20-20 in 2012.

Aldo Koutsoyanopulos ended up leading the team with a .344 average and tied Mulry with 32 runs batted in. Mulry led the team with 56 hits, 42 runs, 13 doubles, nine homers, a .599 slugging percentage, a .415 on-base percentage and 11 stolen bases. Jordon Kron was the first 8-game winner since 2009.