Chico State baseball coach Dave Taylor can scratch baserunning drills off his practice list for this week. The Wildcats put plenty of work on the base paths Sunday in their 11-6 win against Cal Poly Pomona. Wildcats reached base 25 times in eight innings. They banged out 16 hits, drew four walks, got hit by pitches three times, and twice reached via fielders’ choice.
Cody Webber and Shane Kroker enjoyed three-hit days. Blake Gibbs was 2-for-3 and was hit by pitches three times (though he was inexplicably called out the third time he was plunked). Myles Dempsey and Ben Manlove also notched two hits apiece as the 15th-ranked Wildcats improved to 13-5 overall and 7-5 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA).
Starter Luke Barker (2-1) piled up six straight zeroes before running into some trouble in the seventh to earn the win. He gave up four runs on 11 hits in seven innings, striking out three without allowing a free pass. Mike Botelho gave up a solo home run in an inning and a third to earn his fourth save of the season.
The Wildcats wrapped up the weekend in a three-way tie for third place, percentage points behind Cal State Monterey Bay. They’ll face Academy of Art at home next weekend before diving back into CCAA action against Cal State Monterey Bay March 16-18 at Nettleton Stadium.
Cal Poly Pomona fell to 13-6 overall and 6-6 in the CCAA.
Chico State jumped on the Broncos for three runs in the third and led 7-0 before Cal Poly Pomona put together a four-run rally in the seventh to make it interesting. The Broncos got as close as 7-5 before Chico State struck for four more runs in the eighth to put the game away.
Gibbs was hit by a pitch and Kroker singled leading off the second. The Wildcats opened the scoring when Ben Manlove slapped an RBI single up the middle. TJ Yasuhara grounded into a double play to plate the next run, and Webber’s two-out RBI made it 3-0.
Yasuhara walked before Webber singled to start the fourth and those two eventually scored on Cody Foster’s sacrifice fly and Dempsey’s RBI-single to left that made it 5-0.
Back-to-back singles by Manlove and Ian McKay started another two-run rally in the fifth. Eric Angerer brought them home with a two-out single up the middle to make it 7-0.
Barker had kept arguably the CCAA’s best offense scoreless on six hits through his first six innings of work. But the Broncos got base hits on a bunt and two seeing-eye grounders to key a four-run, five-hit rally.
But after Cal Poly Pomona pushed across one more run in the eighth, Chico State struck for four runs in the bottom-half of the inning to put the game away.
Angerer walked and Dempsey singled leading off the inning, and Kroker’s RBI-bunt single gave the Wildcats an important insurance run. It turned out to be the first of four.
McKay tacked on a sacrifice fly and then Yasuhara broke the game open with a two-run double to left.
BOX SCORE
