This past weekend, the Sonoma State University Club Baseball Team kicked off their season with a three game series against the Chico State Wildcats. They played two seven inning games on Saturday, and one nine inning game on Sunday. 

The weekend was a success for The Seawolves, who had a 4-0 win, a 4-1 loss, and a final 7-6 win.

The Seawolves knew what to expect from playing Chico State in previous years. They have always been a top competitor, as well as a rival.   

“Jump on them early and stay on the gas pedal,” said Team Captain, Clark Fahrenthold. 

That is exactly what the Seawolves did. They took an early lead and managed to hold it as the game unfolded. Pitcher, Jonah Lewis, threw six shutout innings, along with a save by Dylan Hellar. 

“My fastball was feeling light out of the hand. So when I established it early, I was able to spin the curveball over for a strike. I only threw a couple change ups as a waste pitch. But, Chico was swinging through the elevated fastball,” said Jonah Lewis. 

However, as the games progressed, they got really heated. Due to some controversial calls from the umpire, along with a multitude of players chirping at each other, it became a dog fight. 

“Everytime I stepped in the box, I wanted to battle the pitcher. No matter what the outcome was, it was a fight,” said Second Basemen, Nick Beckner.  

Unfortunately, as the game progressed, tensions rose. The Seawolves shortstop started mouthing off to the umpire, and got ejected. 

“These umpires are taking the bats out of our hands. They need some new glasses,” said Ryan Weiner, who was escorted off the field. 

On Sunday, the team went into the game knowing what they needed to work on. 

“Tomorrow, we need to come out and eliminate the mental mistakes. Too many first pitch fastballs were taken, as well as looking strikeouts. We need to be baseball savvy. If we can eliminate those mistakes and have a mamba type mentality, then we will be successful,” said Catcher, Zach Pace.  

On Sunday, the Seawolves took an early lead of 2-0 in the first inning. The Wildcats battled their way back as the game went on 6-2. It all came down to the bottom of the ninth inning. The score was 6-5, and the Wildcats were winning. Runners were on second and third with two outs for the Seawolves. Aidan Kelleher stepped up to the plate and ripped the ball to the left for a walkoff win to take the series against the Wildcats. The final score was 7-6, with the Seawolves in the lead.   

“My mindset was to just put the ball in play. We had a nice 2-out rally going and I knew I needed to clutch up and knock them in. I took a deep breath, stepped up to the plate, and belted a fastball to deep leftfield. As soon as I hit, I knew we took it,” said Aidan Kelleher.    

This was only the start to the Seawolves season, and there was already plenty of excitement for sports fans with an ejection and a walkoff win.

 The Seawolves play an away game against Humboldt University next weekend, and play University of California Berkeley on Feb. 22-23, University of California Davis on Mar. 7-8, University of Nevada Reno on Mar. 28-29, and San Jose State on Apr. 18-19. This is the team’s conference schedule, and if they win the series, then they continue their season in Lancaster, California for playoffs. Come out and support your Seawolves.   

“As a unit, I think we played pretty well to start the year. Chico is a good, strong opponent, and we needed to take advantage of every mistake they made in order to start the year on a winning note. While the weekend was not perfect, it sure feels like we have a lot of positivity moving forward, and we will only improve as the season moves forward,” said Head Coach, Roland Schmidt.