SAN BERNARDINO – The Chico State baseball team has already faced UC San Diego, the top-ranked team in the West, on the road. This weekend the Wildcats will take on No. 2 Cal State San Bernardino in another crucial California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) road series. A result as good or better than their four-game split at UC San Diego will allow the Wildcats to leave Southern California in no worse than fourth place with two of the CCAA’s toughest road series’ already out of the way.

The Wildcats and Coyotes, currently tied for second in the CCAA, a game behind UC San Diego, will open the series Friday at 2 p.m. at Fiscalini Field. They’ll play a doubleheader Saturday morning at 11 and the series finale Sunday morning at 11. Friday’s game will be joined in progress by ESPN Radio 101.7 FM and 1340 AM and on the Chico State webcast at www.chicowildcats.com following the Chico State women’s basketball team’s NCAA Championship Tournament game that tips off at 12:30.

Chico State enters the weekend 13-3 overall and 9-3 in the CCAA. The Wildcats are ranked No. 10 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, No. 17 by Ping!baseball, and No. 18 by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers’ Association (NCBWA). The NCBWA has the Wildcats ranked No. 3 in the West Region.

Cal State San Bernardino, the NCBWA’s No. 2 team in the West, is ranked No. 12 in the nation by that same group. The Coyotes are 12-5 overall and 12-4 in the CCAA. They swept Cal State Monterey Bay and Cal State L.A. and took three of four from Sonoma State to start the CCAA slate before losing three of four at Cal State Stanislaus last weekend.

Chico State leads the all-time series 31-14 and has dominated it of late, winning 13 of the last 16 meetings, including three of four in Chico last season and three of four in San Bernardino the year before.

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