Assistant Sports Editor
With a 7-1 lead going into the ninth inning, the CSU Bakersfield baseball team held on by its fingertips after relinquishing five runs and loading the bases and managed the 7-6 victory over the CSU Sacramento Hornets.
“Things got hairy, but our guys came out of the bullpen, Kyle King came in and made his pitches late and got the job done for us after a an excellent outing by Alec Daily,” said CSUB Head Coach Jeremy Beard.
The Roadrunners were riding a 4-game winning streak after coming off a 4-3 victory over the University of Hawaii on Wednesday, April 18 and a series sweep of Utah Valley University the weekend before.
Redshirt-senior Alec Daily took the mound for CSUB and pitched lights out until the ninth inning. Daily finished the game with a line of 8.1 innings, giving up 4 earn runs on 7 hits and striking out a career high 9 batters.
Daily struck out 8 of 9 batters after the fifth inning. He threw 123 pitches and 71 of them for a strike. Daily improves his record to 4-1 on the season and an ERA of 3.25 on the season.
“Today I felt really good. I’ve been feeling better and better with every outing, physically. Coming off Tommy John [surgery], my elbow has been feeling stronger, it’s the best I’ve felt all year,” said Daily.
Daily made quick work of the Hornets batters early, only needing seven pitches in the first inning and nine in the second. He also received help from his offense early, giving him much needed run support.
CSUB scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the second after a solo home run off the bat of junior Ryan Koch, his third on the year.
Freshman Evan Berkey, after drawing his second walk of the game in the third inning scored the second run for the Roadrunners after an RBI single by Koch, giving the Roadrunners a 2-0 lead.
The Roadrunners plated three more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Senior Christian Deaton, with a single got the inning going for the Roadrunners, followed by senior Andrew Penner reaching on an error by the Hornets second baseman.
Senior Luis Martinez scored Deaton and Penner on a double to left-center field that rolled all the way to the fence. Martinez scored on the ensuing at-bat when senior Jassen Oliver hits a single through the left side of the field and giving CSUB a 5-0 lead through the five innings.
Junior Jake Ortega scored in the sixth inning after a wild pitch making the Roadrunner lead 6-0.
Sacramento State pitcher Ty Fox recorded 4 strikeouts in the sixth inning, after committing a throwing error to first base.
The Hornets got on the board after a leadoff walk to start the top of the seventh inning and an RBI double down the left field line to end the shutout for Daily.
The Roadrunners added one more run in the bottom of the seventh inning when freshman Daniel Carrizosa hit a single through the right side of the field and scoring Oliver, giving CSUB a 7-1 lead.
The Hornets batted around the order in the top of the ninth and it began with a solo home run. Two walks, two singles and a triple shrunk the lead to one. A hit-by-pitch put runners on the corner and CSUB head coach Jeremy Beard brought in redshirt-junior Kyle King to close the game for his second consecutive save.
King walked the first batter to load the bases for the Hornets. With the crowd on their toes and hearts racing, King got the hitter to strike out looking and end the Sacramento State comeback and earn his third save on the season.
After the win, the Roadrunners are holders of a 5-game win streak and the moral of the team is great.
“There’s not a worry in the world while we are in the dugout. It’s so loose and free and that’s what it needs to be,” said Koch.
CSUB (15-21, 5-5 WAC) will look for the series win against Sacramento State (19-17, 7-3 WAC) in game two on Saturday, April 21 at 6 p.m. and game three of the series will be Sunday, April 22 at noon.
Photo by Ricky Gonzales/ The Runner
