LOS ANGELES – "The force is with you." "Luuuuke, I am your father." Luke Barker has heard it all. (Trust me.) He better get ready for more. Thursday night, Chico State's senior ace pitched like a Jedi.
 
Barker allowed the leadoff man to reach five times against the California Collegiate Athletic Association's top-hitting team, and three times had a runner on second with nobody out. The fans in the stands and listening on the radio back home must have been thinking: "I have a bad feeling about this." But Barker used a Vader-like grip to choke out rally after rally in leading the Chico State baseball team to a 3-2 win at Cal State L.A. Thursday night.
 
A magician, he was.
 

Barker limited a Cal State L.A. team that was hitting .311 as a team, to just one earned run on seven hits in eight innings, improving to 3-1 on the season and lowering his ERA to 1.64.
 
Danny Miller was a force too, using his magic wand to wallop two triples down the first-base line. The first drove in the Wildcats' first run and he scored the go-ahead tally soon after. He scored a huge insurance run right after the second.
 
They were his first two triples as a Wildcat, and with them, Miller became the sixth player in school history to triple twice in the same game.
 
Ryan O'Shea worked a scoreless ninth for his fifth save and seventh straight no-hitting inning of the season. Dylan Garcia kept the streak alive with a sensational diving stab of a hot smash to his left. He snared the one-hopper, threw to second for one out, and James Hatano turned and threw to first for a game-ending double play.
 
Chico State evened its CCAA record at 12-12 and improved to 13-14 overall with the win. The Wildcats also gained a game on Cal State L.A., which started the day one of three teams with a 4.5-game cushion over the Wildcats in the race for the fourth and final CCAA Championship Tournament berth. The Golden Eagles, winners of seven of eight entering the night, fell to 19-10 overall and 14-7 in the CCAA. They're now in a flat-footed tie with Cal Poly Pomona for fourth place.
 
Cal State L.A. took a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the second. First baseman Tyler Madrid made two errors on the play, allowing the run to score.
 
But Chico State's defense was faultless, if not sensational, outside of that. The Wildcats turned two big double plays and center fielder Sean Smith made a gorgeous catch to end a bases-loaded threat in the sixth.
 
Miller's fourth inning triple plated Madrid with the tying run. Smith drove him in with a one-out single to give Chico State the lead for good.
 
Miller led off the sixth with a triple and scored an important insurance run on Clayton Gelfand's grounder to make it 3-1.
 
Barker, who held the Golden Eagles without a hit in 10 at-bats with runners in scoring position, surrendered his only earned run in the eighth on a one-out double that plated a runner from first base.
 
The tying and go-ahead runs were on third and second with two out in the eighth when he got Paul Martinez to pop up to third to end the inning.
 
Miller finished 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI and Garcia went 2-for-5 to extend his hitting streak to nine games.
 
The series continues with a doubleheader Friday at 1 p.m. and concluded with a single game Saturday at 11 a.m.
 
The Wildcats are simply hoping to "stay on target."