May 14, 2008

Sonoma Gets Revenge, Defeats Baseball in NCAA 1st Round

Sheldon Sets Season K Mark; Gilaspy 3 for 5

       Kearney, Neb. – Junior right hander Gary Moran gave up one run over eight innings to lead the 4^th-ranked Sonoma State baseball team to a 15-2 victory over Nebraska-Kearney Thursday afternoon in the first round of the West Regional in Chico, Calif.

        UNK (33-26), seeing a seven game win streak snapped, will play again Friday at 1:00 p.m. Central against fifth-seed Western Oregon. The Wolves lost to second-seeded UC San Diego, 5-3, in the second game of the tournament. 

       The sixth-seeded Lopers, who rallied from a 7-0 deficit to upset the Seawolves in last year’s first round game, had two runners reach base in the first and second innings but none scored.  

        Three of the four who reached base did so via single. Moran got a “come backer” to end the first and then second baseman David Adler just threw out senior Chris Gillaspy (3 for 5, two RBI) to end the second.

       The team’s No. 2 starter, Moran (8-3) then allowed only four hits, and walked one, over the next six innings. He also finished with nine strikeouts.

       UNK came into the NCAA Tournament having scored at least 10 runs in six straight games.

     “Good pitching stops good hitting any day of the week. He (Means) really had three pitches working well today,” said UNK head coach Damon Day. “We had some chances early on to score but never cashed in. Recently, we’ve been getting those two out hits and that has jumped started our offense.”

      The Lopers first run came in the seventh when Gillaspy hit a two out single to bring home pinch runner Jason Trulin (Blair). Trulin had come in to replace Lincoln junior Brad Hull (2 for 3), who belted a one out double to left center.

       For the day, the three Loper lefty hitters – Gillaspy, Hull and senior Joe Nowaczyk (1 for 2)– went a combined 6 for 10.

       In the ninth, Gillaspy hit a one out single that scored junior Travis Lindhorst (Gering), who began the inning by reaching on an error.

       RMAC Pitcher of the Year Ryan Sheldon (8-5) gave up eight earned runs on 12 hits and two walks in 4.1 innings pitched. The big right hander did fan three Sonoma batters, giving him 96 for the year to break Neal Arnold’s school record (93/1997).

      Offensively, Sonoma (47-13) finished with 20 hits with Ian Bridges (3 for 4, three runs) hitting a solo homer in the first and Konrad Thieme hitting his 17^th dinger of the year, a two run shot, in a three run third.

      Top-seded SSU scored at least one run in the first six innings and was only blanked in the seventh. The ‘Wolves seven through nine hitters caused the most damage, going 8 for 13 with six RBI’s and four runs scored. And, overall, five different SSU starters had three hits in the game.

   Finally for UNK, Omaha junior Bobby Ficenec struck out the side in the ninth. Pictured below are Gillaspy & Hull