Box Score OAKLAND – The Chico State baseball team’s season opener started rocky before the Wildcats rolled to a 10-2 win over Academy of Art in their season opener Friday afternoon at Laney College Oakland.
Wildcats starting pitcher Ryan O’Shea looked a bit rusty early and an error helped lead to two runs Academy of Art runs in the first. But Eric Angerer turn the tide with his 3-run third-inning homer, Cody Slader’s three-run triple keyed a four-run fourth, and Ben Manlove mashed a two-run shot in the fifth.
O’Shea settled in nicely after the first, going four innings and striking out six to earn the win. Relievers Luke Barker and Chris Rodriguez combined for eight punch-outs in five innings in which the Urban Knights mustered only two hits. The pitching staff’s 14 strikeouts were the team’s second most since March of 2008 for the 9th-ranked Wildcats.
The Wildcats were victorious in their season opener for the seventh straight season and 17th time in the past 18 years. They also improved to 6-0 all time against Academy of Art (1-3).
They did all of that using a similar recipe the 2012 team employed on the way to a 40-19 record, California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) and West Region titles, and Division II College World Series berth.
They were hit by pitches 114 times last season, the most in the nation. They were drilled five times Friday.
They ranked third in the nation in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.02) and seventh in walks per nine innings (2.41) last season. They walked just one batter all day Friday.
But they also left room for improvement, committing an uncharacteristic (for a Dave Taylor-coached team) three errors.
The walk and first error both took place in the first, and the Urban Knights took advantage with a trio of hits to take a 2-0 lead.
The Wildcats’ third-inning rally started with Dylan Jones’ leadoff walk and Slader’s beaning. Angerer inflicted the more painful shot with a momentous blast over the right field wall to put Chico State ahead for good.
Austin Prott provided the spark for Chico State’s four-run fourth when he was hit by a pitch for the second time leading off the inning. After Manlove drove a double the opposite way and Roger Bolden was plunked, Slader slammed a three-run triple to right - his first hit as a Wildcat. Angerer drove him in with a sacrifice fly, stretching Chico State’s lead to 7-2.
Manlove muscled a two-run homer to left-center in the fifth, scoring Dempsey. And then Slader scored on a passed ball in the eighth to cap the scoring.
The series continues with a doubleheader Saturday at 4:30 and concludes with a single game Sunday at noon.
