Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 McKINLEYVILLE – The playing conditions were less than ideal – on-again, off-again showers and a soggy McKinleyville High School field. The Chico State softball team was still able to find a bit of sunshine in its Sunday series-ending doubleheader with No. 4 Humboldt State, turning on the offense to the tune of 16 runs and 16 hits – including four home runs – and the Wildcats came within a whisker of sweeping the twinbill, winning the first game 8-7 before seeing the Lumberjacks score five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning of the nightcap to down the 'Cats 11-8. 

With the Sunday split, Chico State moves to 7-10 on the season and 5-7 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA). Humboldt State goes to 18-5 overall and 8-4 in CCAA play.

Of the Wildcats' 16 hits Sunday, seven went for extra bases. Alli Cook and Amanda Cordeiro had three hits apiece over the two games, with Emily McEnaney, Desiree' Gonzalez and Kelli Keefe each picked up a pair of safeties.

Humboldt State jumped out to an early lead in game one of Sunday's doubleheader, combining three hits, three walks and a hit-by-pitch to go up 4-0 in the bottom of the second inning. Chico State cut the deficit in half in the top of the third with three straight two-out hits – Gonzalez and McEnaney scoring on Cordeiro's infield single. The Lumberjacks got a run back on Tonya Walker's RBI double to extend Humboldt's advantage to 5-2.

The Wildcats came roaring back to take the lead in the top of the sixth inning, and it took just one swing of Alex Molina's bat to do it. Molina blasted a grand slam to plate Scotie Walker, Tori Zimmermann and Brynn Lesovsky to put Chico State in front 6-5. Humboldt answered with a big fly in the bottom of the sixth – Dani Randall's two-run homer put the 'Jacks back on top 7-6.


Molina gutted out the complete game victory – her seventh of the season – to improve to 4-4 on the year. Gonzalez and Cordeiro each had two hits to pace Chico State's eight hit attack.

The nightcap was a rollicking, high-scoring, back-and-forth affair. Home runs factored into the first two Wildcats runs, as Sammi Ridgway led off the contest with a round-tripper to left, and a Cordeiro solo shot in the top of the second inning put Chico State up 2-0. Humboldt tied the game in the bottom of the second on a two-run double by Walker, but the 'Cats went back up 3-2 in the top of the third when Keefe scored on a McEnaney sacrifice fly.

The Lumberjacks answered with two runs in the bottom of the third inning to move out in front 4-3, but in the top of the fourth the Wildcats went back in front 6-4 when Walker and Marlee Rettig scored on Cook's two-out single to left field and Ridgway came home on a bases-loaded walk to Gonzalez. Chico State held on to the lead when starting pitcher Brooke Langeloh wiggled her way out of a fourth inning bases loaded, no-out jam unscathed.

Humboldt knotted up the contest in the bottom of the fifth inning on a two-run double by Darian Harris, but Chico State answered in the top of the sixth – Keefe led off with a single and scored when Cook reached on an error. McEnaney followed with a double to plate Cook to give the Wildcats an 8-6 lead.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Humboldt finally took command of the game by plating five runs in the frame. Sarah Fox tied things up with a two-run single, then Walker followed with a big three-run homer to put the Lumberjacks up 11-8. Obbema was summoned to the pitcher's circle for the Lumberjacks in the top of the seventh and recorded the final three outs to give Humboldt State the 11-8 victory and the series win. Cook and Keefe each had two hits as the 'Cats rapped out eight safeties in the nightcap.

Chico State returns home next weekend to take on Cal State Dominguez Hills in a four-game series beginning with a doubleheader Friday at 12 p.m.