TURLOCK — The Stanislaus State baseball team reached the 20-win mark on the first day of April Saturday with a victory over No. 8 UC San Diego, as the Warriors split a California Collegiate Athletic Association doubleheader with the Tritons at Warrior Baseball Field.
The Warriors (20-11, 10-10 CCAA) won the opener 6-3, and the Tritons (21-6, 13-4 CCAA) took the nightcap 8-5. It was the third-quickest time Stan State reached the 20-wins plateau over the last 10 seasons. Stanislaus started the 2008 campaign 21-5 and the 2009 season 21-9. Both of those years were the Warriors' last 30-win seasons.
Both teams took advantage of mistakes by the other. The doubleheader included seven total errors, six wild pitches, four hit batters and a passed ball. Stanislaus State and UC San Diego combined to score seven unearned runs.
The opener started slow for Stanislaus. UC San Diego grabbed an early 2-0 lead in the first inning. Brandon Shirley hit the very first pitch of the game over the right-center field wall for a solo home run. The Tritons got a second run after the Warriors committed two runs in the inning.
But the Warriors rallied back. Two leadoff singles in the third inning led to a two-run, game-tying double by Kyle Nixon, making it 2-2.
The teams stayed locked at 2-2 until the seventh inning, with only one half-inning featuring multiple base runners. In the seventh, Stanislaus took advantage of four free base runners (two walks, two hit-by-pitch), with all four of them coming home to score and giving the Warriors a 6-2 lead.
After a bases-loaded walk to John Holleran, Aldo Koutsoyanopulos found a hole on the left side of the infield and scored two runs with a single.
Jordan Kron recovered from his rough first inning to throw five straight shutout frames. He finished with six innings pitched, only allowing one earned run and striking out three. Tyler Murphy (3-0) earned the victory with three innings pitched and three strikeouts.
In game two, UC San Diego jumped out to a 6-2 lead with five runs in the fourth. Two of the runs were unearned after a Stanislaus throwing error on a sacrifice bunt. That allowed two to score and put a runner at third with no outs.
Stanislaus began chipping away at the deficit with runs in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings. A two-out, two-run single by Holleran made it 7-5 in the fifth. The Warriors had chances to tie or go ahead, but they left two runners in scoring position in both innings, including leaving the bases loaded in the fifth.
