STOCKTON – The Chico State baseball team was leading 6-2 and feeling good about its chances to win a game that would likely have sewn up a spot in the NCAA Championship Tournament for the Wildcats. UC San Diego was getting desperate, facing the reality that a loss would almost certainly end its season.
 
A desperate team is a dangerous thing. The Wildcats were reminded of that fact the hard way on the second day of the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Championship Tournament at Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton on Thursday.
 
UC San Diego scored five unanswered runs over the final five innings and walked off on the Wildcats for a 7-6 win.
 
Chico State, which came within a strike of getting its second win in two days and guaranteeing an appearance on the final day of the tournament, must now win twice Friday to reach the tournament title game.
 

The Wildcats will take on tonight's Cal State East Bay-Cal State Monterey Bay loser at 11 a.m. If they win, they'll face the winner of tonight's game at 7 p.m. with a spot in the title game on the line.
 
Chico State (32-20) almost took a much easier road in the quest for its fourth CCAA Tournament title and first since 2006. The tournament champion will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship Tournament. If the Wildcats do not win the title, they'll be forced to wait to learn their fate during the NCAA selection show Sunday night at 7.
 
The Wildcats entered the tournament ranked No. 6 in the West Region. Six teams will advance to the NCAAs.
 
Ben Gamba hammered a two-run homer, Sonny Cortez scored the game's first run and drove in two more with a two-out single, and Cameron Santos drove in another run on a two-out hit as the Wildcats built a 6-2 advantage.
 
UC San Diego (31-20) cut the deficit in half with runs in the fifth and eighth and got a two-out, two-run double from JD Hearn to tie the game in the ninth. Steven Coe followed with the walkoff winner on a ground ball up the middle.
 
Cortez used his leadoff skills to put the Wildcats on the board in the first. He dragged a bunt toward second base and beat it out for a hit on the first pitch of the game. On the second pitch, Santos laid down a sacrifice bunt. At third after a Gamba grounder, Cortez scored on a wild pitch for a 1-0 lead.
 
Jack Larson's two-run home run in the bottom of the first gave UC San Diego a brief 2-1 advantage. It was just the second home run allowed by Wildcats starter Dalton Erb this season.
 
But Gamba gave the Wildcats the lead right back with a two-run bomb of his own in the third. Casey Bennett's leadoff bunt single set the table. It was Gamba's fifth round-tripper of the season and RBIs No. 59 and 60, tying him with Rich Gregory (1998) and Johnny Hay (2010) for eighth most in Chico State single-season history.
 
Consecutive two-out RBI knocks stretched the lead to four for the Wildcats in the fourth. Josh Falco was hit by a pitch and Andru Cardenas and Bennett drew walks to load the bases, ending the afternoon for Tritons' starter Kyle Mora.
 
Cortez cracked a line single up the middle, just out of the reach of diving shortstop Tyler Howsley, driving in two runs. Then Santos slapped the first pitch he saw into center field to plate another run for a 6-2 lead.
 
Mora, 4-0 with a 2.37 ERA entering the day, was tagged for six earned runs on three hits and three walks in two and two-thirds innings.
 
Erb was rolling after allowing the two-run homer. He retired 13 of the next 15 Tritons and looked like he might go deep into the game. But he gave up consecutive two-out singles and walked two in a row as the Tritons crept to within 6-3 by scoring on a wild pitch.
 
The second walk loaded the bases and brought the potential go-ahead run to the plate. It also spelled the end of Erb's outing.
 
Reliever Stuart Bradley came on in relief and got a fly-out to end the inning.
 
He retired the first six hitters he faced and seven of the first eight – three via strikeout.
 
Larsen hit his second homer of the day leading off the eighth, but Bradley got the next three batters in order before coming back out for the ninth with a 6-4 lead.
 
However, after a leadoff single, Head Coach Dave Taylor summoned lefty AJ Epstein from the bullpen. After surrendering a single to the first hitter he faced, Epstein got an out on a sacrifice bunt and a fly-out to left.
 
With a right-hander due up, Taylor went back to the bullpen, hoping Steven Baker could get the final out. Instead, on a 1-2 count, Hearn hammered a ball off the base of the wall in left-center, tying the game.
 
Grant Wright, the fourth pitcher of the inning, induced a ground ball from Steven Coe. He just couldn't quite snare it before it rolled under his glove before bounding up and over the mound and second base bag for the game-winning hit.
 
2016 CCAA Championship Tournament
Banner Island Ballpark – Stockton, California

Wednesday, May 11
Game 1 – 11:00 a.m.	No. 6 Chico State 6, No. 1 Cal Poly Pomona 2
Game 2 – 3:00 p.m.	No. 2 Cal State East Bay 13, No. 5 Cal State San Bernardino 2
Game 3 – 7:00 p.m.	No. 3 Cal State Monterey Bay 11, No. 4 UC San Diego 7
Thursday, May 12
Game 4 – 11:00 a.m.	Cal Poly Pomona 6, Cal State San Bernardino 2 (San Bernardino eliminated)
Game 5 – 3:00 p.m.	UC San Diego 7, Chico State 6
Game 6 – 7:00 p.m.	Cal State East Bay vs. Cal State Monterey Bay
Friday, May 13
Game 7 – 11:00 a.m.	Chico State vs. Cal State East Bay/Cal State Monterey Bay
Game 8 – 3:00 p.m.	Cal Poly Pomona vs. UC San Diego
Game 9 – 7:00 p.m.	Winner of game 7 vs. Cal State East Bay/Cal State Monterey Bay
Saturday, May 14	(if two teams remain after game 9))
Game 10 – 12:00 p.m.	Championship: Winner of game 7 vs. Winner of game 9
Game 11 – 4:00 p.m.	If-necessary
	(if fthree teams remain after game 9)
Game 10 – 12:00 p.m.	Winner of game 8 vs. Loser of game 9
Game 11 – 4:00 p.m.	Winner of game 9 vs. Winner of game 10