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Toros See Season Come to a Close in 7-6 Heartbreaker Loss to No. 11 Sonoma State

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Keizer, OR -- Despite sizzling hitting the Cal State Dominguez Hills baseball team saw their 2009 season come to a close in a rough 7-6, 10-inning loss to No. 11 Sonoma State in the NCAA West Regional. Though not the pitcher of record, starter Phillip Van Doren fanned two batters in his eight complete innings of duty while throwing 132 pitches to close out his career.

"Well I knew in order to be successful I had to throw my fastball," reflects Van Doren on one of the best games in his career. "I threw a lot of them in the first couple of innings to start it off. Later in the game I started throwing in my curve balls and keeping them off balance as well as hitting my spots."

On two outs in the fifth, three Toros would connect on SSU starter Gary Moran to start a rally that would send Carlos Leyva and Dean Benavidez home on a Kevin Pillar double, giving CSUDH the lead at 2-1.

"Well this is not [my] first time facing Moran all year and it's no surprise he's pitcher of the year, he's a very good pitcher," says Pillar when looking back on his team's stellar hitting. "I think we built a lot of confidence yesterday against [UCSD's] Tim Shibuya. He just gave us the green light from pitch one and we all had good approaches at the plate and got runners on. Earlier in the game we put a lot of pressure on and made timely pitches to get out of some innings."

Another CSUDH error in the sixth would give Sonoma their second unearned run of the game and even the score at 2-2.

A 1-2 pitch in the eighth on bomber Jon Alia gave him more than enough opportunity to belt a tape-measure worthy shot over the right-field fence and give CSUDH the lead at 3-2. The solo home run also gave Alia his 20th of the season, a new CSUDH single-season record.

It was however Andrew Baslow that knotted the lead for the Toros in the top of the ninth. With bases juiced, Baslow blasted a deep triple to clear all the stations and give CSUDH a healthy 6-2 lead.

The Seawolves would take full advantage in the ninth of a tired Van Doren, who threw eight complete frames and 132 pitches, to load the bases, scoring two on a double in right field, before reliever David Fair was called to duties. After grabbing two runs off Fair, the Seawolves became the first team in nearly two months to see the 6'6" frame of Bret Montgomery who shut down the inning with two runners left.

CSUDH was able to get two runners on in the bottom of the tenth but saw the opportunity to score slip away as a flyball all but ended the season for CSUDH.

After loading the bases in the tenth and final frame, a dinker single from SSU's Jonathan Lewis would send home the Seawolves' seventh and final run to end the game with a final score of 7-6.

Again, it was defensive errors that ended the game as CSUDH committed three from the field, cause for three unearned runs. All of CSUDH's six runs were earned.

"Obviously we didn't close it out and that's what championship games are all about," reflects head coach Murphy Su'a. "You have to be able to close and we didn't close. We came in there and were able to put a few guys on base, but we didn't play defense and that's the bottom line. They took advantage of that, tied us, and went ahead."

Overall, the Toros connected on 11 hits while holding the Seawolves to nine.

With a 34-23 overall and final record, the Toros saw their season end on a highly successful note, putting an end to a record-breaking team on more than one level.

"I think we took a huge step with the Dominguez program," says Su'a after the game. "We were able to push forward and get the guys that we needed. We're here to stay, I think we've sent a message that Cal State Dominguez Hills' program is up and coming. I think we've arrived and now just a matter of just sustaining this success."

This year marks the first time in 15 years that CSUDH has been in the NCAA postseason while also seeing a total of more than 10 individual and team records tied or broken.
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