LOS ANGELES – Cal State L.A.'s baseball team used a late rally in the opener and a strong pitching outing in the nightcap to post a big doubleheader sweep over Sonoma State Saturday at Reeder Field.
The Golden Eagles (8-2, 3-0 CCAA) rallied for three runs in the seventh and one in the eighth to pull out a 6-5 win in the opener and then got a complete-game four-hitter from
Ralph Ramirez to post a 4-1 win in the nightcap.
The fourth game of the California Collegiate Athletic Association series has been moved up to 10 a.m. Sunday due to forecasts of rain.
The Golden Eagles have won seven games in a row.
Cal State L.A. fell behind in the opener, 5-2, heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, but struck for three runs, the final two coming on a double by
Trent Zaks to tie the game. The Golden Eagles then took the lead for good in the bottom of the eighth when
Dakota Hernandez singled in what turned out to be the winning run.
Bryan Conant gave up eight hits and three runs while going the first five innings and
Jordan Cavazos allowed two runs over the next 1 1/3 innings.
Adan Cabrales pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball and
Reed Reznicek got the final out of the eighth inning via strikeout.
Chris Oropesa worked a scoreless ninth inning to pick up the save, his first of the season.
Cal State L.A. had 13 hits in the opener, including two each from Zaks, Hernandez,
Rodrigo Martinez,
Paul Martinez,
Jake Jelmini, and
Nick Osuna.
Sonoma State (3-6, 0-3 CCAA) got two hits each from Daniel Caresio, Cody Morris, Hayden Cronebold and Cameron Merriwether.
The seven-inning nightcap featured a tight pitching duel between Ramirez and Sonoma State's Ryan Luna. The game was scoreless into the fourth inning when the Golden Eagles broke through for all three of their runs.
Rodrigo Martinez delivered a two-run single with the bases loaded and a third run scored on a Sonoma State error.
Ryan Welker had a run-scoring single to make it 4-0.
That was more than enough for Ramirez, who was masterful through all seven innings and improved to 3-0. Sonoma State's only run came in the fifth inning courtesy of a double to Devin Alexander and a sacrifice fly by Caresio.
Ramirez, though, retired the side in order in the sixth and seventh innings and wound up retiring the last nine batters he faced.
Rodrigo Martinez was 3-for-3 with two RBI and Hernandez had two more hits for the Golden Eagles in the nightcap.
Cal State L.A. will return to action on Sunday with the series finale against Sonoma State with a new starting time of 10 a.m.
