The California Collegiate Athletic Association's North and South Division Baseball Championships will be decided by a 38-game conference schedule. These first four might be some of the most important of all for Chico State.
 
The Wildcats, off to a promising 10-2 start, host 16^th-ranked Cal State Monterey Bay in a four-game series at Nettleton Stadium beginning Friday at 2 p.m. The series continues with a doubleheader Saturday at 11 a.m., and concludes with a single game Sunday at noon.
 
Chico State, which entered the D2 Baseball News and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association polls this week at No. 30 and No. 23, respectively, was favored to win the North Division crown in the coaches' preseason poll. Cal State Monterey Bay was picked to finish second.
 
The Otters, 11-1, lead the league in home runs (17) and extra-base hits (49).
 
Chico State boasts a league-low team ERA of 1.83, having allowed just two home runs.
 
Neither of those came last weekend. In fact, the Wildcats are coming off their first three-game series shutout in the program's history, having beaten Holy Names 3-0, 18-0, and 14-0. The Wildcats blanked Nevada-Reno in a short two-game series in 1974 and Sonoma State in a two-game set in 1967.
 
It also marked just the fifth time in the last 20 seasons that the Wildcats played an error-free series. The record for consecutive games without an error is six, set by the 2013 Wildcats March 29-April 7. The last four games of that run came against Cal State San Bernardino and marked the last time the Wildcats played a series without committing a misstep.
 
There are a number of ways for folks who can't make the games to follow the action. Saturday and Sunday's games will be broadcast locally on Newstalk 1290-AM KPAY, with the play-by-play simulcast on the Internet through the Wildcat Athletics website. Friday's game is internet-only. Live Stats and live streaming video will also be available for all four games.