GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Josh Meagher homered twice and drove in three runs, but the Chico State baseball team fell short in the opening game of a four-game series at Mesa State 7-4 Thursday afternoon. Mesa State freshman lefty Gabe Carpenter fired four shutout innings of relief, allowing only an infield single, to quell Chico State’s offense.

The Wildcats, ranked No. 3 in the nation entering the series, dipped to 3-2 on the season. Mesa State, ranked No. 23, improved to 3-1. The teams will face off again Friday in a doubleheader beginning at 11 a.m., PST. They’ll wrap up their series Saturday with a single game at 10:30 a.m., PST.

The Wildcats took a 2-1 when Cody Dee blasted a two-run homer (his team-best third of the season) in the top of the second. Meagher’s solo shot in the third made it 3-1 before the Mavericks answered with two in the bottom-half of the inning and another in the fourth to grab a 4-3 lead.

Meagher briefly tied it for the Wildcats with another solo home run in the fifth, but that would be Chico State’s last hit until Deven Braden’s two-out infield single in the ninth.

The Mavericks got a run in the bottom of the fifth to re-take the lead on Mike Provencher’s long home run, and then got two insurance runs in the eighth.

Pete Mickartz (0-1) absorbed the loss for Chico State. Dee, Braden, and Meagher finished with two hits apiece.

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