Riding an eight-game losing streak, staring at a last-place finish and trailing 4-0, the SF State Gators (19-35, 12-25 CCAA) had every reason to quit against the Sonoma State Seawolves (25-30, 19-19 CCAA).

However, on Senior Day, senior A.J. Biama and his teammates were determined to end the 2005 season on a high note. Tied at 5-5 with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Biama sent Tim Woerner’s 1-0 pitch deep into the right center field gap for a two-run double that provided the margin of victory in the Gators’ 7-5 victory.

“You always look forward to something like that since you were a little kid,” Biama said. “I was looking for something middle-away on the plate.

“He threw me a fastball away and I hit it.”

Behind the powerful bats of Biama and Aaron Garcia, and the strong arms of Roberto Torres and Jason Swick, the Gators swept the doubleheader, winning the first game 7-5 and the second 6-5.

Both games saw the Gators rally from early deficits to win. In game one, the Gators rallied from a 4-0 deficit, while in game two, the Gators had to rally twice after trailing 3-1 and later 5-4.

“We put a lot of work in and had a lot of ups and downs, but today we played the way we wanted to all year,” said head coach Matt Markovich.

By winning the first game of the doubleheader, the Gators eliminated the Seawolves from the CCAA playoffs.

“We had nothing to lose, so we just cut it loose and played with a purpose to knock out Sonoma State,” Swick said.

Coming into the Saturday doubleheader, the Seawolves were still mathematically alive for the playoffs. To qualify, Sonoma State needed to sweep the Gators and get help from Cal Poly Pomona, which had its own series against Cal State San Bernardino.

At first, the stars appeared to be aligned for the Seawolves. As Pomona was handing down a 9-6 defeat to San Bernardino, the Seawolves scored two runs in the top of the first inning off of Torres for a quick 2-0 lead.

The SF State career leader in strikeouts settled down for the next four innings. Using a fastball in the low 90s to set up his nasty slider, Torres proceeded to mow down the Seawolves, racking up nine strikeouts, including a stretch of six K’s in a row.

“The fastball felt good today,” Torres said. “Once the fastball is feeling good, everything comes from there.”

Torres cruised along until the fifth inning, when Seawolves centerfielder Aaron O’Dell knocked in two runs with a two-out single.

While Torres was blowing the ball past hitters, the Gators were being held equally in check by Seawolf pitcher Justin Wiley.

Even though he didn’t match Torres’ strikeout totals, Wiley kept the Gators off the board for the first four innings.

In the bottom of the fifth, trailing 4-0, the Gator bats finally came to life. With one out, Andreas Madsen doubled down the left field line. Bryan Moore lashed an opposite field single to right, driving in Madsen. Garcia doubled to left center, moving Moore to third. Biama followed up with a ground out to the shortstop, scoring Moore.

A wild pitch by Wiley allowed Garcia to score from third for the Gators’ third run of the game.

Down 4-3, the Gators turned to the lefty Swick to keep the Seawolves in check the rest of the way. Swick responded to the challenge, scattering four hits and racking up five strikeouts over the final four innings, while allowing only one unearned run to pick up his second win of the season.

“My arm was feeling good,” Swick said. “Once I got ahead (and got) the hitters thinking and off balance, (I got) them to do what (I wanted) them to do.”

Madsen went 2-4 with three runs scored in game one. Other offensive stars in game one included Moore, who went 2-3 with three runs scored and three RBIs over the two games, and Biama, who finished 3-5 with four RBIs.

Torres and Swick combined for 14 strikeouts.

In one of their most determined efforts of the season, the Gators trailed three times in game two, but managed to fight off each deficit.

Tied at 5-5 in the eighth inning, Jason Adams doubled to left center and was sacrificed to third by Garcia. With the winning run on third and less than two outs, the Seawolves walked Biama and Carlos Medina intentionally to load the bases.

Ron Markovich launched a mammoth drive over the centerfielder’s head for a walk-off single, completing the two-game sweep over the Seawolves.

Swick (2-2) picked up the win in game one while Drew Bernier (2-3) won game two.

“One (win) would have been great, but two was just awesome, especially being a senior and not really beating those guys for the past two years,” Medina said. “It’s one of those things where you’ll look back and say ‘I gave it my all on the last weekend.’”