TURLOCK — Just like Friday's opener, Saturday's doubleheader between Western Oregon and the Stanislaus State baseball team featured two games with early scoring followed by a lockdown battle, with both contests being decided by narrow margins.
Western Oregon escaped with two victories Saturday to take a lead in the four-game series, scoring three runs in the 11th inning of the opener to win, 4-1, and benefiting from a three-run error in the night cap to win, 5-2, at Warrior Field.
GAME ONE
Western Oregon (4-3) scored in the first inning for the second straight game in the opener, using a sacrifice fly from Jacob Maiben to take a 1-0 lead. Stanislaus State (2-2) tied it in the bottom of the second thanks to a leadoff double from
Alex Solis, who later scored on a safety squeeze bunt from
Hunter Stonier, making it 1-1.
From there, the teams stayed scoreless for eight innings. The Warriors didn't get a runner past first base again until the sixth inning, while five of the nine runners Western Oregon stranded during that span were left in scoring position.
Stanislaus State set itself up multiple times for opportunities to take the lead late. It had two runners in scoring position in the seventh, one in the eighth, a runner at third base in the bottom of the ninth, and had a two-out base runner in the 10th, but could not get any of them home.
That left the door open for Western Oregon to finally break through in the top of the 11th. Hibiki Ouchi started the game-winning rally with a one-out solo home run over the left field wall. Maiben walked, then scored two batters later on Jackson Holstad's two-out RBI triple. Holstad added insurance for the Wolves, scoring on a wild pitch to make it 4-1.
Danny Murphy went 3 for 5 and
Jonluke Goldman was 2 for 4 for the Warriors in game one. The Wolves had five multi-hit performances in their lineup yet stranded 15 runners on base.
Tony Jacob made his first career start for Stan State, throwing five innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts.
Trevor McInerney (0-1) not only had a hit and stole a base while playing second base the whole game, he also threw 5 1/3 innings of relief with two strikeouts in the defeat.
GAME TWO
This time it was the Warriors staking themselves to an early lead, as they took a 1-0 lead in the second inning of game two off an RBI single from
Casey Carr. It could have been an even bigger inning for the Warriors, but a pickoff erased a leadoff single, and two runners were left in scoring position after the last batter struck out on three pitches.
Western Oregon responded with a big five-run inning in the top of the third, which was all it would need for the seven-inning nightcap. Curran Mitzel hit a one-out home run to tie the game at 1-1, then the next four WOU batters would reach safely, ending with a bases-loaded walk that gave the Wolves a 2-1 lead. It was the following play that made all the difference. Jack Strickland looked to fly out to left field to end the inning and strand the bases loaded, but instead the ball was dropped, allowing three unearned runs to score and making it 5-1.
Stanislaus State got a run back in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI double from
Zach Jones. It got another runner in scoring position in the seventh, but WOU's Michael Moore shut it down with a strikeout to end the game and earn the save.
Anthony Ramirez (0-1) allowed only the two unearned runs in six innings pitched while striking out seven in his first start of the year. Western Oregon's Seth Kuykendall pitched into the sixth and struck out five against no walks.
COMING UP
Sunday's series finale is scheduled for an 11 a.m. first pitch, a change from the original noon start time. Fans can purchase tickets and find all live coverage links on WarriorAthletics.com.
