TURLOCK – Don’t pinch Chico State Baseball Coach Dave Taylor because he wasn’t wearing green Thursday. Pinch him because he’s probably afraid he’s dreaming. He put the Wildcats on a bus at 6:30 in the morning for a three-and-a-half hour drive to Turlock, and when they headed back north 12 hours later, they had two more wins in the bag and the top spot in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) standings. The Wildcats won the first game 7-2 in 12 innings and the nightcap 3-2.
The 8th-ranked Wildcats are now 14-3 on the season and 8-2 in the CCAA, percentage points ahead of Sonoma State for first place in the conference standings. That fact is all the more remarkable considering that the Wildcats have played their first 10 conference games on the road.
Cal State Stanislaus fell to 14-8 overall and 8-8 in the CCAA. But for a brief moment during Thursday’s opener it looked as if the day might turn into a disaster for the Wildcats.
They took a 1-0 lead from the top of the third all the way to the ninth before letting it slip away and then let a 2-1 lead evaporate in the 11th. And the host Warriors, who had just tied the game 2-2, had the bases loaded with just one out. Reliever Juan Guerra had painted himself into a corner, but found the best way out, getting David Contreras to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Cody Foster then started a five-run rally with a seemingly innocuous two-out single. Matt Anderson doubled and Adrian Bringas was intentionally walked to load the bases. Jon Peters, a defensive replacement in the top-half of the inning, stepped to the plate for his first at-bat of the day. What he did ensured that it would not be his last. Peters drove a hard ground ball up the middle for a two-run single and drive in what proved to be the game-winning runs. Blake Gibbs bashed a two-run double to the wall in right field and TJ Yasuharaa capped the scoring with an RBI-single.
Guerra went four innings to earn his first win of the season. Chico State starter Kevin Brahney went six shutout innings, allowing just four hits and a walk while striking out seven. Leonard Giammanco (0-2) took the loss.
Bringas, Anderson, Foster, Yasuhara and Manlove banged out two hits apiece for the Wildcats. Manlove’s RBI-single in the third plated Yasuhara for the first run of the game.
Bringas, who singled in the bottom of the fifth in the second game, stretched his hitting streak to 21 games. He’s now just one game shy of Daniel Code’s record of 22 set in 2007.
Perhaps buoyed by that win, the Wildcats quickly put three runs on the board in the second inning of game two. Anderson walked, Gibbs was hit by a pitch, and Peters moved them to second and third with a sacrifice bunt. Zach Steele drove in the game’s first run with a sacrifice fly and the Manlove plated Gibbs with a single up the middle to make it 2-0. Foster’s base hit advanced Manlove to second and allowed him to score on Kroker’s single through the right side.
That was all the cushion Chico State starter Nick Baker needed. The true freshman went six strong innings to improve to 4-0 on the season. He scattered six hits, struck out a pair and didn’t walk a batter. Sheldon Lechuga came on for the seventh to nail down his second save of the season.
Kroker finished the game 3-for-4 after not starting the first game.
The Wildcats and Warriors will wrap up their four-game series with a doubleheader in Chico Sunday at noon.
BOX SCORE GAME 1
BOX SCORE GAME 2
