POMONA – Grant Wright jumped onto a sinking ship and righted it for the Chico State baseball team. But after Wright guided his team to the shores of victory with his finest outing of the season, the Cal Poly Pomona baseball team delivered one final wave of offense to snuff out the Wildcats' hopes in a 10-7 loss Sunday.
 
Wright entered the game with three runs already in, the bases loaded, and nobody out in the first inning. Starting with a sacrifice fly and double play, the junior who had not pitched beyond an inning and a third in his previous 11 appearances, pitched into the seventh without having allowed a run.
 

Chico State, meanwhile, put up five runs in the second to take a 5-4 lead and led 6-4 in the bottom of the seventh before the dam burst.
 
The Broncos got three straight one-out hits off of Wright to close the gap to 6-5. With runners on second and third, he intentionally walked the next batter to set up the double-play.
 
Head Coach Dave Taylor went to the mound to take the ball from Wright, who received a hearty congratulation from his teammates in front of the dugout. Stuart Bradley got a strikeout for the second out, but could not finish the frame as the Broncos got a base hit to tie the game, a three-run double to take the lead, and knocked him from the game with an RBI-double.
 
Colton Fletcher came on to get the final out, but the damage had been done.
 
Wright's final line – four runs on six hits in six-and-a-third innings – certainly does not tell the story. He fell to 0-1 with the loss.
 
Chico State starter Dalton Erb walked the first four batters he faced and then got no help from his stagnating defense. When the Wildcats finally got some action, they committed consecutive errors, spelling the end of Erb's afternoon.
 
Chico State bounced back, however, taking advantage of the Broncos' starters' own wildness. After Josh Falco was hit by a pitch and Andru Cardenas singled, three consecutive Wildcats walked to close the gap to 4-2. Cameron Santos' RBI-grounder and Ben Gamba's sacrifice fly tied the game, and then Dillon Kelley drilled an RBI-double for a 5-4 lead.
 
The Wildcats tacked on another run in the fifth when Falco and Cardenas hit consecutive one-out singles and then Cody Bistline's bunt brought Falco home. However, they stranded eight on base over the first six innings, a trend that came back to haunt them.
 
They seeded a rally in the eighth when Jerrett Maas hit a leadoff pinch-hit single and then the Broncos committed a throwing error on Sonny Cortez's chopper to the left side. But Santos grounded into a twin-killing, plating the run to draw the 'Cats within 10-7, but snuffing out the rally.
 
Cal Poly Pomona reliever Ryan Ashworth (3-2) got the win, allowing just two runs (one earned) on six hits in eight innings.
 
The Broncos improved to 24-13 overall and 16-9 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. Chico State dipped to 25-13 and 15-11. The Wildcats, who now trail Cal State Monterey Bay by a half-game in the CCAA North Division standings, play their final home series next weekend when Sonoma State comes to town for a four-game series beginning Friday night at 6.