Toros Keep San Francisco Gators at Bay With 7-5 & 8-1 Wins

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

San Francisco, CA -- Wins of 7-5 and 8-1 secured the Cal State Dominguez Hills baseball team a record of 5-1 in the CCAA (9-5 overall), proving they are the best squad so far since 1996. Grabbing the wins from the mound were Michael Cruz and Matt Hopps who fanned a respective five and ten batters.

In game on the Toros were able to easily place two on the board, one each in the first and second innings with Andrew Baslow advancing home on an error and Jon Skala taking home off a Brian Sturgis single.

After bringing three more home in the fifth on three hits and one error, the Toros saw their heat from the mound cool off. Though fanning five batters in 5.2 innings, Bret Montgomery, was unable to close out the Gators as they grabbed six total hits in the fifth and sixth which they turned into five runs for a tied game.

CSUDH responded in the eighth to bring home Carlos Leyva off a Jon Alia single to left field to regain the lead and eventually grab the game at 7-5.

Game two proved to give the Toros a chance to capitalize on their hits as their 15 were enough to bring home eight runs. Dean Benavidez who cranked out two hits in the second game was the star from the plate as he garnered three RBIs.

Though going into the eighth inning already having won the game, CSUDH decided to put their bats to use with three Toros hitting doubles in Sean Beckley, Benavidez and Sturgis.

Taking charge from the mound on the day was both Cruz and Hopps, each picking up another win. Cruz went for a total of 3.1 innings of relief to shutdown five of his 12 batters faced. Hopps would go for seven innings and fan 10 batters in his 26 faced.

Now with an overall record of 9-5 (5-1 CCAA), the Toros have now tied their best conference opening record, set in 1996. CSUDH will close out action against the Gators tomorrow with a double-header set to start at 11:00am.

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