SF State’s baseball team notched its first home win of the season Sunday as it took the first game of a double header, 12-5, against California State University Stanislaus.
The player of the day was Jordan Abernathy, SF State’s DH and the number three hitter in both games. Abernathy led the charge as the Gators put up 12 runs against three pitchers for the Warriors. The junior went 3-4 with two doubles, five RBI and two runs scored.
The Warriors scored two in the first but the Gators bit back to put up four in the second, two of which were the result of an Abernathy single back up the middle. Abernathy was thrown out at second on the play trying to advance, ending the inning.
The Warriors did get a run back the next inning to cut the lead to 4-3, but the Gators broke the game open in the fifth. After Abernathy plated three more with a bases clearing double, first baseman Chris Nicholson hit a long home run that ended up in the parking structure behind left center field when it stopped rolling. The home run capped off a five-run inning as the Gators made it 9-3.
The Warriors and Gators continued to trade runs for the next few innings, with the Gators having the final play and scoring two in the eighth to make it 12-5. Cy Vojak closed out game one, allowing just one hit over three innings to earn the save.
In game two, the Warriors built up a six-run lead by the fifth inning, doing damage against starter Allen Ressler and relievers Jack Cornish and Marco Gonzales. Abernathy got the Gators on the board with a two-run single in the bottom of the sixth, but the Warrior lead proved insurmountable.
The Warriors put two more on the board before closing the Gators out to win 8-2. Ressler took the loss for the Gators, his first of the season.
The Gators, now 4-16 (2-10), will take on conference foe UC San Diego at Maloney Field on Thursday, March 16 at 2 p.m. and follow it up with a double header against the Tritons at Maloney Field on Friday.
