BOX SCORE SEASIDE, Calif. – The Cal State Monterey Bay baseball team won its second straight series with a 9-3 finale against Central Washington on Sunday at the Otter Sports Complex.
Off to their best start in program history, the Otters improve to 9-3 while the Wildcats finish their California road trip with a 1-5 record. CWU posted losses to San Francisco State and Cal State Stanislaus prior to the Otter-Wildcat series.
“It was a great team win today. We received contributions from a lot of guys,” said CSUMB Head Coach
Walt White. “We were clicking on all cylinders with great pitching, timely hitting, and sound defense.”
Back-to-back singles by
Ronnie Fhurong (Hollister, Calif/San Benito HS) and
Jason Merjano (San Ramon, Calif./Sierra College) got CSUMB rolling in the first inning and on the board. A CWU error and two more hits including a double by senior
Chris Lopiccolo (Marina, Calif./UCSB) put the Otters up 4-0.
The Otters added three more runs in the fourth highlighted by
Matt Urakami (San Jose, Calif./Branham HS) delivering a perfect bunt down the first baseline to bring
Garrett Gemgnani (Los Angeles/Cluver City HS) home.
After five scoreless innings, the Wildcats finally crossed the plate on a combination of two singles, a wild pitch and error.
The Wildcats scored two more runs in the seventh on Brandon Wang's second homer of the series and a RBI single Brett Bielec.
CSUMB answered with two runs of its own in their side of the frame on
Chris Blanton's (Burlingame, Calif./Burlingame HS) sac fly and a double by
David Garcia (Gilroy, Calif./Misson College).
Chris Neifert (Scappoose, Ore./Scappoose HS) earned his first collegiate win after a predetermined 4.0 innings performance, giving up only two hits.
Jordan Helmkamp came in for relief for two innings and racked up four strikeouts.
“It's very encouraging to play a complete game with conference games beginning next week,” White said. “We're prepared and ready for the challenge that Cal Poly Pomona will present to us next weekend. It will be our biggest test yet.”
The Otters opened conference play next weekend with a four-game series at Cal Poly Pomona.
