CHICO – Kevin Seaver extended his arms as if he were flying as he ran between first and second base. Perhaps he was mimicking the baseball that he had just hit over the left field wall. The soaring blast seemed to have wings. It soared high into the sky before coming down beyond the left field wall. Seaver’s two-run bomb, his first hit of the season, was the game-winning hit in the Chico State baseball team’s rollercoaster of a 17-12 win against Cal State East Bay in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday at Nettleton Stadium. The Wildcats won game two 4-2.
Chico State was in serious danger of losing the 7-0 lead it grabbed in the first two innings of the opener. The Wildcats led 9-4 after three frames and 11-6 after six. But the visiting Pioneers scored six runs against five different Chico State pitchers in the seventh to take an improbable 12-11 lead. It looked like that lead might stand as the Wildcats had two down with no one on in the bottom of the eighth before they suddenly exploded for five runs on Seaver’s home run, Adrian Bringas’ two-run blast, and Hunter Buckmore’s RBI double.
Chico State improved to 3-0 and has actually jumped out to a very early half-game lead atop the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) standings. They lead Cal State San Bernardino by a half game after the Coyotes’ second game against Cal State Monterey Bay was suspended due to fog tied 4-4 in the eighth Saturday.
Cal State East Bay fell to 2-4 overall and 0-3 in the CCAA with the losses.
The Wildcats and Pioneers will wrap up this four-game series with a single game Sunday at noon.
Jackson Evans led the Wildcats with four hits on the day, while Adrian Bringas, Johnny Hay, and Adam Arakawa notched three apiece.
Casey Edelbrock was undoubtedly the day’s most effective pitcher. The junior transfer fired two scoreless innings for the Wildcats to earn the victory in the opening game and collected the save in the nightcap. The 6-foot-3 right-handers from Palomar Community College entered the game with two on and none out in the eighth and proceeded to get two strikeouts and a fly ball to end the threat. He retired the Pioneers in the ninth on a fly ball and two weak grounders.
Edelbrock then pitched the seventh inning of game two to nail down his first save of the season. He allowed an infield single, but got a double play to end the game.
As it did in a 12-0 win in Friday’s opener, Chico State dominated the early stages of Saturday’s opener. They batted around in the second inning, pounding out seven hits, to grab a 7-0 lead. Michael Murphy’s two-run triple was the big blow, while Bringas, Deven Braden, Kyle Leon, and Arakawa also drove in runs.
Bringas’ RBI-double keyed a two-run third and Arakawa cracked a two-run double in the sixth as the Wildcats’ offense kept rolling. And to the delight of the home fans, it kept rolling even after the Pioneers’ gritty comeback.
On a much smaller scale, the second game mirrored the first. The Wildcats jumped out to a lead on Seaver’s RBI-single only to see Cal State East Bay rally with single runs in the second and third to take the lead.
That lead did not last long, however. Evans homered to right-center field to tie the game and then Dave Braden hit a two-run blast to left-center to provide the winning margin.
Wildcats’ starter Phillip Hymas collected the win in his Chico State debut, allowing two runs in four innings of work. Ian Waldron followed with two scoreless innings to preserve the lead, and Edelbrock closed it out.
GAME 1 BOX SCORE
GAME 2 BOX SCORE
