It took the Chico State baseball almost a month and a half to play its first 12 California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) contests of the 2011 campaign. Lord willing and the creek don’t rise (as my grandma likes to say) they’ll play their next 10 in the next 10 days. That important stretch starts with a four-game series at Cal State Dominguez Hills beginning with a single game Friday at 3 PM. The two NCAA Championship Tournament West Regional participants from a year ago will then play a doubleheader at 11 AM Saturday and the series finale at 11 AM Sunday.
The Wildcats will return home to host a doubleheader against San Francisco State Tuesday beginning at 2 PM and then host Cal State San Bernardino for four games on the weekend of April 8-10.
Chico State begins this stretch atop the CCAA standings at 10-2 and ranked No. 5 in the nation at 16-3. This even though the Wildcats have played 14 of their first 19 on the road, including all 12 of their conference games.
Cal State Dominguez Hills, on the other hand, has played as many home games (19) as the Wildcats have played home and away. But despite that home field advantage and the return of All-Americans Carlos Leyva, Abel Medina and Kevin Pillar, the Toros are in danger of falling completely out of the race for one of four CCAA Championship Tournament berths at 9-15 in the CCAA. They’re 13-18 overall in large part because they’ve committed a conference-high 54 errors.
This is an important series for the Wildcats because they’ll play 18 of their final 24 regular season games at home once it’s over. And it’s an important series for the Toros because every loss puts them one step closer to being out of the postseason picture.
It also gives the Wildcats to exact some revenge on a team that beat them twice in the postseason last year and took five of six games overall from the Wildcats in 2010. The Wildcats could deal a severe blow to any Toros postseason hopes by winning this series. No team with more than 18 losses has ever made the CCAA Championship Tournament field.
The Toros have played well with their backs against the wall. They’ve taken three of four against conference title contenders Cal State L.A. and Cal State San Bernardino over the last two weekends. And the weekend prior to that they split a four-game series against 10th-ranked UC San Diego.
Pillar is the reigning CCAA Player of the Week. He batted .471 (8-for-17) with five runs scored, five doubles, a home run and five RBIs while posting a .941 slugging and .526 on-base percentage to lead the Toros to three wins in four contests against Cal State L.A.
While the Toros have struggled to play catch, the Wildcats have boasted the best defensive in the conference, compiling a .976 fielding percentage, which is the fourth highest in the nation. They’ve also turned a double play per game on average, rank 18th in the nation in walks allowed per nine innings (2.77). The catching corps, led by Ben Manlove, has given up a league-low 11 stolen bases while throwing out eight attempted base thieves.
Offensively the Wildcats have been clutch. They’ve won 10 games in come-from-behind fashion, including seven after trailing by two or more runs. They’ve done so by outscoring the opposition 34-8 from the seventh inning on.
All four of this weekend’s games will be available on local radio. Friday’s game will be broadcast on AM 1340 ESPN Radio, while the final three games of the series will be on AM 1290 KPAY. All four games broadcasts can also be heard on www.chicowildcats.com. Just click on the Wildcat Webcast link on the right side of the page.
