STOCKTON – With the conference's top two softball pitchers facing off Friday in the opening game of the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Championship Tournament, one would assume the contest would be a low-scoring affair dominated by the two starting hurlers. Well, a combined 13 runs and 25 hits later, Chico State and No. 5 Cal State Monterey Bay slugged it out in back-and-forth fashion through 10 exciting innings, with both teams letting late leads slip away before the Otters pushed across the game-winner in the bottom of the 10th to edge the Wildcats 7-6 at Arnaiz Stadium in Stockton.

 

Friday's loss dropped Chico State to 28-19 on the season and into the CCAA Championship Tournament's losers bracket, where they'll face Sonoma State in an elimination game Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Monterey Bay improves to 45-10 overall and advances to Saturday's 12 noon winner's bracket game.
 
The Wildcats nearly won the game in regulation when, with two outs and two strikes in the top of the seventh inning, Desiree' Gonzalez blasted a two-run homer to put Chico State in front 5-4. Monterey Bay forced extra innings with a run in the bottom of the seventh, aided by two crucial Wildcat errors. The 'Cats went back in front 6-5 in the top of the eighth when Kelli Keefe connected for her first career round-tripper, sending the ball high over the right field fence. But the Otters once again tied up the contest in the bottom of the eighth, then in the 10th a Marielle Valdez single to right plated Vanessa Avila with the game-winner, giving Monterey Bay the 7-6 victory.
 
The Otters knocked Chico State starting pitcher Haley Gilham out in the third inning, vaulting to an early 3-0 lead. The Wildcats pulled even with a run in the fourth – Emily McEnaney's scoring on a Keefe single to right – and two in the fifth when Gonzalez blooped a single to right field to plate Ashley Huff and Alli Cook.
 
Monterey Bay went back in front in the bottom of the fifth when Cori Reinhardt came home from third on an Annelise Lopez sacrifice fly. The Otters hung on to that 4-3 advantage and were one strike away from closing out the contest until McEnaney drew a two-out walk to set the stage for Gonzalez, who laced her seventh homer of the year over the left to give the Wildcats their first lead of the game in the top of the seventh. Unfortunately, Monterey Bay was able to knot things up in the bottom of the seventh and ultimately prevailed in extra innings.
 
Reinhardt, the CCAA Pitcher of the Year and the conference's ERA leader, allowed five earned runs in 10 innings of work but still picked up the win to improve to 28-2 on the season. Cailin Garmon, the third pitcher of the day used by the Wildcats, took the loss to see her record dip to 1-2 on the year.
 
Gonzalez was a productive 4-fo-5 at the plate, driving in four of Chico State's six runs. Keefe went 2-for-4 and knocked in a pair, while Marlee Rettig singled twice in three official at-bats.