Box Score STOCKTON – The Chico State baseball team’s quest for the banner took an ugly detour Thursday night. The Wildcats fell 9-0 to Cal State L.A. on opening night of the California Collegiate Athletic Association Championship Tournament at Stockton’s Banner Island Ballpark.
The Wildcats will face top-seeded Cal State Monterey Bay in an elimination game Friday at 2 p.m. The winner of that game will need to win again on Saturday and once more on Sunday in order to win the tournament title and the automatic berth in the NCAA Championship Tournament that goes along with it.
Sonoma State and Cal State L.A. will play in the winners’ bracket game Friday at 6 p.m.
Cal State L.A. starter Jordan Sechler slammed the door on Chico State, allowing just four hits in eight innings of work to improve to 7-2.
The Golden Eagles jumped on Wildcats ace starter Nick Baker for three runs in the first. He allowed three hits – including Jeremy Weber’s RBI-double and James Wharton’s 2-run homer – in his first seven offerings. Two more hits followed, but Baker got out of the jam with a short pop fly and a strikeout.
It marked just the third time this season in 13 starts he had allowed three runs in a game.
The Golden Eagles were back at it again in the second. They scored three more times, aided by a looping two-run double against the defense down the left field line to take a 6-0 advantage.
At that point, Cal State L.A. had scored as many earned runs against Baker (11) as he had allowed in his first 11 starts of the season.
He settled in to keep the deficit at six runs before a two-out RI-single in the sixth knocked him from the game.
Baker allowed eight runs (all earned) on 11 hits as his sparkling ERA went from 1.64 to 2.31.
The Golden Eagles greeted reliever Luke Barker with a walk and consecutive RBI singles, building the lead to 9-0. But the sophomore settled down and allowed just the one run in two-and-a-third innings while striking out three.
Chico State stranded eight runners went hitless in six at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Eric Angerer reached base in all four of his plate appearances with a base hit, two walks and a hit-by-pitch.
