LA JOLLA – The Chico State baseball team's series opener Friday against UC San Diego is one of those type of games where the final score doesn't even come close to painting an accurate picture of the action. Two of the top pitchers in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA), Justin Donatella of the Tritons and the Wildcats' Luke Barker, duked it out for six zero-filled innings, with just one unearned run scored until UC San Diego plated five in its final two turns at bat to post a 6-0 victory at Triton Ballpark in La Jolla.
The loss dropped Chico State to 6-5 on the year and 5-3 in the CCAA. UC San Diego won for the fourth time in the last five games to improve to 14-7 overall and 10-3 in conference play.
The Wildcats just could not get anything going offensively against Donatella, who held Chico State to just five singles while striking out nine in seven-and-a-third innings of work. Peter Miller was the lone Wildcat to notch a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4 on the night.
The Tritons broke through in the bottom of the third inning – Gradeigh Sanchez was hit by a pitch, advanced to second on a base hit and later in the frame scored on a Wildcat throwing error. Barker, who finished the game allowing just one unearned run on three hits with six strikeouts and no walks, shook it off and proceeded to match Donatella goose-egg for goose-egg until Head Coach Dave Taylor elected to go to the bullpen in the seventh inning.
Chico State's best scoring threat of the night came in the top of the seventh. With the score still 1-0, Connor Huesers led off the inning with a single and advanced to second on a one-out walk to Clayton Gelfand. Donatella was able to keep the 'Cats off the scoreboard, striking out Jeff Ortega and getting Alex Michaels to ground out to end the inning.
UC San Diego broke open the close contest in the bottom of the seventh – a two-run single by Michael Mann and an RBI double by Jack Larson put the Tritons up 4-0. San Diego tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, and though the 'Cats made some noise in the top of the ninth, the Tritons successfully applied the final zero to the Chico State side of the scoreboard to complete the 6-0 victory.
Donatella picked up the win to improve to 4-1 on the season. Despite lowering his season ERA to 0.96, Barker suffered the hard-luck loss to even his season record at 1-1.
The Wildcats and Tritons will meet again Saturday for games two and three of the series. The doubleheader is scheduled to get underway at noon. Fans can follow the action on the Internet with Mitch Cox calling the play-by-play; Live Stats and streaming video will also be available through the Wildcat Athletics website.
