With two solid starts and plenty of hitting, the Stanislaus State baseball team opened the 2016 season with a bang after a pair of victories over William Jessup on Friday.
Tyler Murphy and Chris Senn combined to throw a two-hit shutout while Nick Ippolito scattered three hits as the Warriors won 6-0 in the opener. In the nightcap, two Warrior homeruns were part of the Stan State 14-hit show as they pounded Jessup, 10-2.
Murphy was dealing in the first game, allowing just one hit in six innings while striking out five for his sophomore season debut. The only hit he gave up was a Steven Stockton bunt single in the third inning. Senn followed with three innings of shutout baseball to earn the save.
At the plate, Ippolito went 3-for-4 with a double to lead the offense. Andrew Mallon, Nick Molina and Erik Colombini each collected two safeties. Stanislaus jumped on top 3-0 in the first inning with RBI singles by Mallon, Michael Chavarria and Colombini.
In the nightcap, Nick Voumard also turned in a solid start, going five strong. He struck out seven batters, walked one and allowed three hits. He left the game, though, with the score 2-0.
Stanislaus tagged on four runs in the sixth to make it 6-0 before really busting the game open with two two-run homeruns in the seventh and eighth innings.
Nathan Chunn's homer in the seventh was a line drive just over the four-foot fence in left field. Molina then smacked a towering two-run shot into the tree left of the scoreboard to answer William Jessup's two-run top of the eighth.
Chavarria finished game two with three hits as did Charlie Gaff. Ippolito added two hits for a five-hit day and Mallon went 2-for-4 in the nightcap as well.
William Jessup (0-5) was led by Dayton Kurian, who had two of the team's five hits on the day.
The series finale between the teams of Warriors is scheduled for 2 p.m. on today.