Justin Charles capped a perfect day Friday with the perfect ending.
Charles, making his Cal State Stanislaus debut, drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning to cap a 3-for-3 day with four RBIs and hand the Warriors a 6-5 win over Western Oregon in both teams' 2013 season opener.
Colt McLaughlin led off the 10th by reaching on a fielding error by Wolves first baseman Josh Wong. Klayton Miller, who himself was 3-for-5 Friday with a double and a triple, sacrificed McLaughlin to second, setting up Charles' at-bat.
The walk-off win came after Cal State Stanislaus (1-0) watched a 5-2 eighth-inning lead disappear as Western Oregon rallied for three runs in the top of the ninth, all with two outs. The Wolves (0-1) had four hits in the inning, but the tying run came in on a passed ball.
David Snapp (1-0) got the victory in the walk-off with 1 1/3 innings in relief. Western Oregon's Kody Stone (0-1) took the loss. Craig Beevers and Ross Gonsalves also had multiple-hit days for the Warriors with two hits apiece. They also each scored a run, two of six different Warriors to do so.
The Warriors never trailed in the game, as they built a 3-0 lead after the third. Charles gave the Warriors their first run of the game and a 1-0 first-inning lead with a sacrifice fly. Two innings later, Charles singled home Miller to push the lead to 2-0 before Trent Frisbie drove him home on an RBI groundout to make it 3-0.
Cal State Stanislaus showed patience on the first day of the season, drawing five walks and getting three hit-by-pitches. The Warriors threatened to score even more runs with leadoff hitters reaching four times in five innings between the second and seventh. They would end up stranding 15 runners in the game, but a larger lead wasn't immediately necessary thanks to the performance of Byron Lemon on the mound.
Lemon allowed two runs (one earned) with six strikeouts and no walks in 6 2/3 innings of work and at one point retired 10 in a row before Western Oregon got its first run in the sixth to make it 3-1.
The Warriors left the bases loaded in the bottom half of the sixth, allowing the Wolves to close the gap even further with another run in the seventh, making it 3-2.
Lemon left with the lead in the seventh and the Warriors padded that lead with two more runs in the bottom of the eighth thanks to an RBI double from Miller and a squeeze bunt by Charles, but that would only help hold off Western Oregon until extra innings.