Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 TURLOCK – It was the type of day every coach would like to bottle. Just about everything went right for the Chico State softball team Saturday, as the Wildcats registered two impressive victories during day two action at the Tournament of Champions in Turlock. After taking two out of three to begin tournament play Friday, the 'Cats continued to roll on Saturday, blanking Holy Names 3-0 at Pedretti Park before moving over to the Turlock Regional Sports Complex to hand Montana State-Billings a 9-1 defeat.
 
Chico State has now won eight of its last 10 contests, and with Saturday's two victories improve to 20-9 on the season. As a result, Angel Shamblin becomes just the second head coach in the program's history to post six consecutive seasons of 20 or more wins.
 
The Wildcats also finished the first two days of tournament action as the top team in their pool, and now advance to Sunday's Gold Bracket play. Chico State will take on Western Washington (17-13) Sunday afternoon at 12:15, with the winner moving on to the Gold Bracket championship game at 2:30 p.m. to face either Montana State-Billings or Humboldt State.


 

The 'Cats collected 18 hits over the two games, with 12 coming in their victory over Montana State-Billings. Alli Cook delivered a combined four hits on the day (she now has 11 over five Tournament of Champions games), with Desiree' Gonzalez and Ashley Huff contributing three safeties apiece. Emily McEnaney had two hits and four runs batted in for Chico State, while Kelli Keefe and Brynn Lesovsky chipped in with two hits apiece.
 
The big story in Saturday's opening game against Holy Names was not the Wildcats' hitting, but the performance of Chico State starting pitcher Brooke Langeloh, who came within two outs of tossing a no-hitter. Langeloh surrendered a one-out single to Geena Garabedian in the top of the seventh inning to break up the no-no, but still delivered a one-hit shutout with a career-high 13 strikeouts to raise her season record to 9-5. At one point, Langeloh retired 11 consecutive hitters, striking out the side in both the fourth and fifth innings.
 
Chico State opened the scoring when Huff led off the bottom of the first inning with a bunt single, stole second and came home when Cook's bunt single was thrown away. The Wildcats scored twice in the bottom of the third as a McEnaney sacrifice fly plated Huff and Gonzalez singled home Cook. That would prove to be more than enough support for Langeloh as the 'Cats went on for the 3-0 victory over Holy Names.
 
In the Wildcats' afternoon game against Montana State-Billings, a Chico State error contributed to the Yellowjackets plating a run in the top of the first, but the 'Cats roared back in their half of the inning – Lesovsky's two-out, bases-loaded ground-rule double to right chased home Cook and McEnaney, and a Montana State-Billings miscue on a Keefe grounder allowed Gonzalez to score from third to give Chico State a 3-1 lead.
 
The Wildcats scored twice in the bottom of the second when Katy Weger led off with a single and came home from third on a Yellowjackets' throwing error; later in the frame McEnaney plated Cook on an infield single to extend Chico State's advantage to 5-1.
 
Keefe's RBI single in the bottom of the fourth made it a 6-1 contest, then in the fifth Chico State brought an end to the proceedings when Huff scored from third on a wild pitch and McEnaney followed with a two-run double to give the Wildcats the 9-1 win. Pitcher Haley Gilham allowed just one unearned run and two hits to pick up the complete game victory (her 11th of the season) and improve to 10-4 on the year.