FRESNO – All-America closer Luke Barker aced his return to the starting lineup in the Chico State baseball team's season opener Friday. But the role he vacated proved problematic in a 2-1 loss in 10 innings at Fresno Pacific.
 
Barker threw seven shutout innings, allowing only four hits and striking out five.
 
Robert Hook relieved and retired the first five hitters he faced, four via strikeout. A two-out walk and wild pitch preceded an RBI single that the game 1-1, sending it into extra frames.
 

Andrew Carrillo, who singled home the Wildcats' lone run in the second inning, hit a two-out single and advanced to second on a balk in the top of the 10^th. But the Wildcats couldn't push the run across. Carrillo finished with three of the Wildcats' four hits in his Wildcats debut. Alex Michaels had the other hit, a triple over the center fielder's head in the second.
 
Fresno Pacific won in walk-off fashion in the bottom-half of the inning. Reliever Torgen Soderlund (0-1) allowed a leadoff hit and a walk to start the frame. AJ Epstein came into a tight spot and nearly got out of it, getting an out on a sacrifice bunt, and after an intentional walk, inducing a fly ball to center that wasn't deep enough to score the run. But he walked cleanup hitter Preston Scott on four pitches, forcing the winning run home.
 
The Wildcats broke the seal in the second. Dylan Garcia drew a two-out walk, advanced to second on a passed ball, and then scored on Carrillo's clean single to right center.
 
Michaels was thrown out at the plate after his one-out triple in the first and Garcia suffered the same fate in the fifth after reaching on a hit-by-pitch. Garcia reached base twice in four plate appearances.
 
The series concludes with a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 11 a.m.