COMPTON – Sometimes home isn’t so sweet. It’s certain that the Chico State baseball team won’t arrive back in Chico with a good taste in its mouth when the team bus pulls into the University Stadium parking lot on Saturday. The Wildcats were the first team eliminated from the NCAA Championship Tournament West Regional Friday when they lost to Hawaii Pacific 11-3 at the MLB Urban Youth Academy.
Jordan Larson and Adrian Bringas hit solo home runs and Larson scored on Johnny Hay’s sacrifice fly. But that was all the offense the Wildcats could muster.
Hawaii Pacific, meanwhile, scored three in the fourth and two more in the sixth against Chico State starter Scott Greene. The Sea Warriors (38-11) then exploded for six runs in the eighth to put the game away.
Chico State finished its season at 35-20. The Wildcats were making their 12th NCAA Championship Tournament appearance in the last 15 years.
The Wildcats could not solve Hawaii Pacific starter Toby Inouye, who allowed just three runs on eight hits in his fourth complete-game effort of the season. He struck out three and walked just two, improving to 8-2.
Meanwhile, Chico State pitchers walked six hitters, the first five of whom came around to score as the Wildcats’ 13-game winning streak against Hawaii Pacific was snapped.
The loss marked the final game the careers of Jordan Larson, Deven Braden, Michael Murphy, Adam Arakawa, Michael Gleason, Brian Fowler, Kevin Seaver, and Ian Waldron. Larson finishes eighth in Chico State career hits history with 159 and ninth in runs scored with 114. Braden is ninth on Chico State’s career list with 18 sacrifice hits. Arakawa finished 10th in Chico State history with a career batting average of .358 and 33 career doubles. He also ranks fourth in school history in walks and first among two-year players with 69.
Seaver, the National Gold Glove recipient at first base last season who also broke the school’s single-season records in batting average (.442) and on-base percentage (.524), wrapped up his career second in Chico State history in single season doubles (26) and career doubles (43). He’s tied for ninth in career hit-by-pitches with 24.
Murphy, Gleason, Waldron and juniors Johnny Hay, Hunter Buckmore, Jackson Evans and Casey Edelbrock also etched their names on the record books this season. Murphy, a one-year player who transferred from Arizona State, finished the season tied with Larson for seventh with 64 runs scored. Gleason struck out 90 hitters this season, the sixth most in Chico State history, while also tallying one of the top-10 strikeout-to-walk and strikeouts-per-game number ratios. Waldron, who finished the season 6-1, made 26 appearances this season – the ninth most in school history – and 47 in his career, which is the eighth most ever by a Wildcat.
Hay’s sacrifice fly Friday was his eighth of the season, tying Ryan Wulfert (2003) for the school record. He also drove in 60 runs, tying Rich Gregory (2008) for eighth all-time. Buckmore finished the season with six pinch hits, the second in single-season history. Evans’ five triples are the fourth most in a single season. Edelbrock’s two complete-game shutouts are the second most in Chico State history and his 1.47 walks-per-game is the sixth lowest in single-season history.
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