Box Score POMONA – Kagen Hopkins has ensured many happy flights for the Chico State baseball team this season. He doesn’t carry around pretzels, but he had Cal Poly Pomona tied up in knots Sunday, tossing eight shutout innings to lead the third-ranked Wildcats to a 3-0 win in the series finale at Cal Poly Pomona.
Hopkins has pitched the Wildcats to wins on three consecutive getaway days during a stretch in which they’ve won 16 of 17. And Sunday marked the ultimate getaway day. It was the Wildcats’ final regular-season road game.
Chico State improved to 30-6 overall and 23-5 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) while dealing a severe blow to the playoff hopes of Cal Poly Pomona by taking three of four in the series. The Broncos fell to 24-18 and 16-16 in the CCAA.
With 12 regular-season games to play, Chico State enters the aptly-named “home” stretch with a one-game lead atop the CCAA standings over Cal State L.A. and a “magic number” of four to reach the CCAA Championship Tournament.
The Wildcats, who finished the regular season 19-5 away from home, have ridden their sensational starting staff to reach this point. Hopkins has been particularly impressive in his past three road starts, tossing 26 innings and allowing just a run on 13 hits.
He threw a two-hit shutout at Cal State East Bay on March 17. He threw a complete-game eight-hitter, allowing just one run, at San Francisco State on March 30th.
Sunday, Hopkins surrendered just singles in eight shutout innings. He walked two and struck out three.
Sean Martin got the final three outs for his third save of the season.
Chico State got all the runs it needed in the first. Blake Gibbs’ two-out double started things. He scored when Cody Webber singled to the shortstop, who threw the ball away, allowing Gibbs to score.
The hit was the 99th of Gibbs’ career and the 43rd for extra bases.
Chico State loaded the bases in the fourth when Webber walked, Myles Dempsey bunted for a hit and Austin Prott hit an infield single. Roger Boulden’s sacrifice fly gave the Wildcats a 2-0 lead.
They added an insurance run in the eighth when Dempsey singled and Prott doubled home pinch runner Kenny Corona.
The Wildcats host UC San Diego for a four-game series beginning Friday night at 6. Sonoma State will be in town the following weekend, though the finale of that series will be the Capital City Clash II at Raley Field in Sacramento. Chico State wraps up the regular season with a four-game home series against Cal State L.A.
