San Francisco State University’s baseball team played a four-game series at home against Cal State San Bernardino Feb. 23-25 at Maloney Field, with SFSU hitting the ground running with a 3-2 walk-off win Friday afternoon.
After a strong start, the team was eager to keep that energy going into the double-header on Saturday. Things turned in their favor as they clinched victory with yet another walk-off, securing their second win of the series against the no. 11-ranked CSUSB.
“I feel good,” said Gators head coach Tony Schifano. “They’re a nationally ranked team and we’re right there with them pitch-for-pitch. You’d like to win the series there in that last game, but that guy pitched a great game. You just tip your cap.”
CSUSB opened the first game with a single, scoring a run in the first inning. The Gators wasted no time and responded quickly in the bottom of the first, with a base hit by their infielder Justin Johnson, as well as a two-run home run by their pitcher, Jacob French, which put them ahead 3-1.
After six scoreless innings from Nathan Shinn, CSUSB got two hits and scored three runs in the top of the eighth. SFSU ended up tying the game with another single at the bottom of the eighth. After another shutout inning by SFSU, they finished the game with a walk-off hit by Anthony Alvarez.
After many cheers from the fans and players, it was time to take that series win in the second game of the double-header.
Antonio Nanez, shortstop for SFSU, was happy with how he and his teammates played against CSUSB. He thinks they had quality at-bats, which gave them the upper hand in the series to keep CSUSB from taking the lead.
“I think it was a great first one,” Nanez said. “We came and walked him off again and twice in the first two games and then that last one, I mean we had a good fight until the end and we just came up a little short but we had good AB’s all day and I think it will carry on tomorrow. I’ll just get that third one.”
The Gators opened the second game of the day with a shaky start when they allowed a two-run home run in the top of the second inning. SFSU couldn’t find a way to get a score on the board, but their bullpen still managed to keep CSUSB from scoring for the rest of the game.
SFSU was finally able to get on the board during their last chance in the final inning when Christian Smith hit a sacrifice fly into center field that scored a run. They fell short when they had a runner on second but couldn’t get him across, leading them to lose the game 2-1.
Right-handed pitcher Mickey Radanovich was aware of how well CSUSB could take the second game from them but he had his own strategy to keep them from scoring any extra runs.
“My strategy was just to get ahead early and live low and make it hard on the hitters, let them get weak contact on our defense and make great plays,” Radanovich said. “A lot of off-speed early on just because then it makes my fastball better and I had them guessing on a lot. I think it worked great.”
SFSU managed to get the series win against San Bernardino on Sunday with a score of 4-1.
