LOS ANGELES – Just when it began to look like Cal State L.A. was going to be unstoppable all weekend, redshirt freshman pitcher Luke Barker put a stop to the Golden Eagles’ offensive output. Barker fired a complete game five hitter to help the Chico State baseball team earn a doubleheader split Saturday in Los Angeles.
The Wildcats dropped the first game 9-1 as Cal State L.A. pounded out 17 hits, giving them a stunning total of 30 runs on 41 hits over the first two games of the series. But after giving up a run on two hits in the second inning in the nightcap, Barker held Cal State L.A. scoreless, scattering three hits over the final five frames and improving to 4-1 with the win.
Chico State, now 24-9 overall and 14-9 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA), will try to salvage a series split Sunday when the teams wrap up their four-game set at 11 a.m.
Cal State L.A. is now 13-12 overall and 9-10 in the CCAA.
Chico State’s only run in the first game came on Cody Foster’s solo home run in the eighth inning. It was just the Wildcats’ third hit of the game and extended Foster’s hitting streak to 11 games.
The Wildcats’ offense snapped out of its funk early in game two. Cody Webber’s first inning RBI double gave Chico State the lead for good and Blake Gibbs scored on a wild pitch moments later to make it 2-0.
They blew the game open with six more runs in the third. Webber, Myles Dempsey, Jordan Beck, Roger Boulden and TJ Yasuhara each drove in runs in the frame as the Wildcats built an 8-1 lead. Pierson Jeremiah started the rally with a leadoff single before Foster was hit by a pitch and Gibbs sacrificed them over.
Gibbs singled and scored in the sixth, driven in by Webber, to give the Wildcats their 9-1 lead.
Webber finished 3-for-4 with a trio of RBI while Boulden and Dempsey banged out two hits apiece. Foster and Gibbs each scored twice and Foster’s fourth-inning single extended his hitting streak to 12 games.
Gibbs was called out on strikes after working the count full in his first at-bat of the day, ending his streak of reaching base safely at 13 plate appearances.
GAME 1 BOX
GAME 2 BOX
