LOS ANGELES – Behind timely hitting and a stellar bullpen performance, the Cal State Monterey Bay baseball team sank San Francisco State late, 7-6, Friday afternoon in the CCAA Tournament semifinals.
The Otters scored four runs in the eighth inning to seize the lead for good, and plated a run in the previous three frames to dig themselves out of a 6-1 hole and move onto the championship tomorrow at Reeder Field on the campus of Cal State LA.
CSUMB was down to its final four outs of the ballgame as senior
Jimmy Garcia stepped to the plate. The second pitch the Oakland, Calif., native saw, he drove off the right-center wall and tied the game 6-6.
The very next batter,
Jacob Dressler, smashed a single to centerfield to bring home Garcia and hand the Otters the lead, one they would not relinquish.
The Otter bullpen did their part to keep the comeback hopes alive as
Daniel Flores and
Aidan Lee combined to pitch 4 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.
Flores earned his first victory on the season, throwing 2 1/3 innings of one-hit ball, while Lee came in a closed the door for his first save this year, striking out two in the final two innings.
CSUMB evened the score 1-1 in the fifth when Garcia opened his four-RBI game by driving in
Max Farfan on single through the left side.
After the Gators pulled away with a five-run bottom half, the Otters started to chip away.
Jaden Sheppard drove home
KW Quilici on a sac-fly to left in the sixth and then
Noah Zertuche scored on a wild pitch in the seventh.
The Otters out-hit the Gators, 10-8, as
Cole Murchison collected a three-hit game and Garcia and Dressler atop the lineup posted two hits apiece.
CSUMB will once again battle San Francisco State for the CCAA Tournament title. The two teams will meet tomorrow at 1 p.m.