CHICO, Calif. – The CCAA-leading Cal State San Marcos baseball team (12-6, 11-2 CCAA) opened its four-game series at Chico State (11-7, 6-7 CCAA) with a 17-5 victory on Friday night at Nettleton Stadium.
 
TOP PERFORMERS
Victor Castaneda – 1-for-2 | 4 RBIs | 1 HR
Luke Reece – 4-for-4 | 4 R | 3 RBIs | 1 HR | 1 BB
Phoenix Sommay – 2-for-4 | 3 RBIs | 1 R | 1 HR | 1 2B | 1 SF
Ethan Rivera – 2-for-4 | 2 RBIs | 1 R | 1 2B | 1 SF | 1 HBP
Garrett Teunissen – 3-for-6 | 3 R | 1 RBI | 2 2B | 1 SB
Cameron Mahaffy – 2-for-3 | 2 R | 2 BB | 1 2B | 1 RBI
Roman Connolly – 7.0 IP | 3 K | 2 R | 1 ER | 8 H
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• CSUSM took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first with a couple of RBI singles by Reece and Mahaffy.
• Chico cut CSUSM's lead in half at 2-1 in the bottom of the first with an RBI double by Troy Kent.
• An RBI single by Teunissen and Reece and an RBI double by Rivera gave the Cougars a 5-1 lead in the top of the second.
• An RBI groundout by the Wildcats' Ernie Arambula cut the deficit to 5-2 in the bottom of the second.
• CSUSM took a commanding 9-2 lead in the top of the third with an RBI single by Luna, a two-run shot down the right field line by Sommay and a solo shot to center by Reece.
• In the top of the fourth, Sommay hit a sacrifice fly to right that scored Mahaffy before Will Potter crossed the plate on a Chico error to make it 11-2.
• Coming on as a pinch hitter in the top of the seventh, Castaneda put an 0-2 pitch over the right field wall for a grand slam and his first career homer to give CSUSM a 15-2 lead.
• The Cougars scored their final two runs of the ballgame in the top of the eighth on a wild pitch that scored Teunissen and a sac fly to center by Rivera.
• A sac fly by Chico's Thade Miller in the bottom of the eighth trimmed CSUSM's lead to 17-3.
• The Wildcats posted the game's final runs in the bottom of the ninth with a two-run homer by Alexander Johnson to make it 17-5.

 
QUICK HITS

• Cougar starter Roman Connolly (3-0) earned the win after striking out three while allowing just two runs (one earned) on eight hits and no walks in 7.0 innings.
• Wildcat starter Kevin Lyons (3-2) took the loss after allowing five runs (four earned) on six hits and a walk in 1.2 innings.
• This was CSUSM's second 17-5 win in the past three games. The Cougars tallied the same score in the second game of last Saturday's doubleheader against Cal State San Bernardino.
• This was the Cougars' largest-ever margin of victory against the Wildcats. CSUSM previously beat Chico by 11 runs in 2019.
• Teunissen notched his team-leading eighth multi-hit game of the year.
• Sommay moved his team-leading hitting streak to nine games while Mahaffy and Reece improved their streaks to eight and seven games, respectively.
• Reece had his program-leading sixth multi-RBI game of the season.
• Reece and Sommay each improved their reached-base streaks to 13 games.
• CSUSM continued to stay on top of the CCAA standings and still has a one-game lead over Cal State Monterey Bay.

 
UP NEXT
CSUSM will continue its series at Chico State with a noon doubleheader on Saturday.