Matadors Clinch Series with Cal Poly, Sweep Doubleheader

Saturday, May 7

Northridge, CA

11:00 a.m.

California State University at Northridge

26-16, 5-11

Cal Poly

26-18, 7-6

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Cal Poly	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	7	3
CSUN	1	0	0	5	0	0	0	1	X	7	8	1

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Cal Poly	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	3	6	0
CSUN	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	X	5	11	1

Photo by: CSUN Athletics

Matadors Clinch Series with Cal Poly, Sweep Doubleheader

5/7/2016 6:14:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

NORTHRIDGE, CA---

CSUN Baseball (27-16, 6-11 BWC) swept a doubleheader with Cal Poly (26-19, 7-7 BWC) on Saturday afternoon at Matador Field, winning 7-2 in the opener and 5-3 in game two to secure a series victory. Elias Orona drove in three runs on the day including belting his first career home run while Branden Berry broke a 2-2 tie with a two-run double in game two. Matadors relievers Nick Viola and Samuel Myers earned wins in the doubleheader as Viola tossed 5.1 shutout innings out of the bullpen in the opener and Myers worked a scoreless inning to notch his second win of the season.

A day after Friday's series opener was rained out, the Matadors and Mustangs battled in 18 innings of back-and-forth action on Saturday. Both contests would take on a similiar scenario as the teams competed in low-scoring contests in the early going with Cal Poly taking slim leads. In the end, the Matadors would stage two come-from-behind wins with timely hitting and strong pitching out of the bullpen.

"I thought we played a little clearer today. We took pitches and it paid off at the end of the games." said head coach Greg Moore. "We were above the ball driving it into the ground. We had a couple skips through the infield and a couple balls hit hard at their infielders [in game two]. It finally broke [in the seventh inning]. Obviously the key swing is Branden Berry's. He did a great job of making a two-strike adjustment."

In game one, the Matadors struck first with a single tally in the opening inning after taking advantage of a Mustang error. A Yusuke Akitoshi one-out single was misplayed in left field, which allowed the speedy shortstop to make it around to third base. Two pitches later, Berry drove in the run on a slow grounder to the right side.

Starter Kenny Rosenberg pitched around two hits in the first inning but the Mustangs would even the game on a leadoff home run from Alec Smith in the second. The score remained tied until the fourth inning when Nick Meyer hit a two-out single with runners at the corners to put Cal Poly in front, 2-1. Rosenberg intentionally walked Brett Barbier, making way for Viola to enter out of the bullpen. With the bases loaded and two outs, Viola struck out the Mustang cleanup hitter John Schuknecht swinging to end the threat.

Trailing by a run, the Matadors went to work in the fourth. Justin Toerner reached on an infield single with one out in the inning and Dylan Alexander stepped to the plate and deposited a shot into the left center field gap to plate the tying run. The Matadors received a pair of breaks on a pair of wild pitches to take the lead and Orona delivered with a two-run shot that sailed over the wall in left to give CSUN a 5-2 edge. Not content with a three-run edge, the Matadors added a fifth-run in the fourth on the Mustangs' third wild pitch of the inning that scored Smith, who singled and stole second base earlier in the frame.

Now pitching with a four-run advantage, Viola returned back to the mound and went to work. The senior right-hander retired the side in order in the fifth and sixth innings, and he pitched around a two-out single in the top of the seventh. In the eighth, he set down the Mustang batters in order, striking out two batters.

Viola shut the door in the ninth with another clean inning, stranding a runner at second base to end his longest outing as a Matador. Prior to his peformance on Saturday, Viola had never worked more than 2.1 innings in a game since joining the Matadors in 2015. Viola surpassed his previous career-high with 5.1 innings of work against the Mustangs while also posting a new personal-best of four strikeouts.

Game two would follow the same script as the Matadors again took the lead in the first inning. Fred Smith ripped a double down the right field line to start the proceedings and he later advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt from Akitoshi. Berry then brought home Smith with a groundout up the middle to put the Matadors in front.

Senior Angel Rodriguez pitched effectively in the early going, setting down the first six batters but the Mustangs would take the lead with single tallies in the third and fourth innings. Brett Binning knocked in the tying run on a infield single in the third and Michael Sanderson hit an RBI grounder an inning later to give Cal Poly a 2-1 lead.

Despite surrendering the lead, Rodriguez kept CSUN in the game through the middle innings. Following a leadoff single in the fourth, Rodriguez retired nine of the final 11 batters he faced including giving up just one hit.

Cal Poly would extend its lead, however, in the seventh inning on a Kevin Morgan RBI single that pushed the lead to 3-1. Myers took over for Rodriguez in the frame and he retired the final three batters to keep CSUN within striking distance.

CSUN would have an answer as a pair of two-out hits in the bottom of the seventh launched the Matadors back into the lead. With runners at the corners and two outs, Akitoshi smacked a grounder through the left side to bring CSUN a run closer. Berry followed with a double to right center field that cleared the bases and gave the Matadors a 4-3 lead.

In the eighth, the Matadors tacked on another run on a clutch hit from Orona. With two outs and Jose Ruiz at first, Orona stroked a double into the right center field gap to bring in CSUN's fifth run.

Conner O'Neil shut the door with two shutout innings to secure his eighth save of the season. The sophomore right-hander struck out the side in the top of the ninth, which gave him his 20th career save as Matador.

CSUN looks for the series sweep of Cal Poly on Sunday. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m.