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California State University at Bakersfield Athletics

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5
Winner Washington State WSU 1-0
2
CSU Bakersfield CSUB 0-1
Winner
Washington State WSU
1-0
5
Final
2
CSU Bakersfield CSUB
0-1
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Washington State WSU 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 5 4 2
CSU Bakersfield CSUB 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 8 0

W: Mills, Zane (1-0) L: Charles, Aaron (0-1) S: Leonard, Owen (1)

Game Recap: Baseball |

Timely Hitting Eludes CSUB in Season Opener

Freshman Jacen Roberson & Kobe Silva Combine to Reach Base Six Times in `Runner Debuts



Bakersfield, Calif. – Washington State rallied for three runs in the ninth and held on in the bottom half of the inning, as CSU Bakersfield dropped its season opener, 5-2, Friday night at Hardt Field. The Roadrunners out hit the Cougars 8-4 but stranded ten men overall and left the bases loaded on two separate occasions.
 
"It's great to get the first game under our belt and we'll learn a lot from this one," said CSUB Head Coach Jeremy Beard. "We played well enough to win but the timely hits just weren't there for us tonight."
 
Redshirt Freshman Jacen Roberson got the `Runners of to a fast start when he led off the bottom of the first with a triple over the head of Collin Montez in right field. Roberson would score two batters later when fellow freshman Kobe Silva doubled into the gap in left-center field.
 
Tyler Jorgensen followed with a walk to load the bases and Bakersfield seemed destined to put up a crooked number in the first, but Washington State starter Brandon White settled down, sandwiched a pair of strikeouts around a fielder's choice to escape the jam down just one run.
 
Roberson finished his first collegiate games with three total hits, adding singles to right in both the second and fourth innings. He also scored a run, drove in another and stole a bag in his Roadrunner debut.
 
"It was fun," Roberson said when asked about his first game at the DI level. "I think we probably could have won tonight, but baseball is a weird game sometimes and we can't let this one affect us tomorrow."
 
Sophomore Roman Angelo got the game one start for Bakersfield. He allowed just one hit, but walked three batters and hit another over four innings.
 
The Cougars got to Angelo in the top half of the third when Jake Meyer walked, and Nate Swarts was hit by a pitch to put two runners on with nobody down. Angelo retired the next two hitters, but WSU third baseman Jack Smith made sure he didn't escape the inning unscathed. Instead, Smith lined a two-strike offering deep into left center to plate two and give Washington State its first lead of the night.
 
Bakersfield pulled even in the fourth when Evan Berkey, Angel Saldivar and Roberson all singled. Roberson's base hit to right drove in Saldivar to knot the score at two runs apiece.
 
Berkey and Saldivar would each finish 1-for-4. Berkey also added a pair of stolen bases. Silva walked twice to reach base three times, in another impressive debut from a CSUB freshman.
 
The game settled down after that when Washington State turned to reliever Zane Mills and the `Runners handed the ball to redshirt Junior Aaron Charles.
 
Mills would strike out eight over 4.1 innings, walking just one and not allowing a hit.
 
Charles matched him pitch for pitch over the first four innings of his outing. After missing all of the 2019 season due to injury, Charles made the most of his 2020 debut retiring the first 12 Cougars he faced.
 
WSU eventually got to Charles in the ninth, when first-baseman Kyle Manzardo double off the wall in left field to open the frame. Charles then hit a batter, but struck out the next two and looked likely to escape without any damage done when Garrett Gouldsmith singled through the right side to give the Cougars the timely hit they needed and plate the winning run.  
 
It was the type of hit that just didn't come for the `Runners on this night. An inning earlier, Gouldsmith made a diving play up the middle to snare a hard ground ball of the bat of freshman Aaron Casillas and take a CSUB run off the board.
 
Washington State would add two more in the top of the ninth on a base hit by Tyler Latsch. The Cougars carried a three-run lead into the bottom of the ninth.
 
CSUB got a one-out single from Damian Henderson, but a double play ended both the threat and the ballgame.

The two teams will square off again on Saturday, in the middle game of this weekend's three-game set. First-pitch is set for 1 p.m.
 
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