The 2017 Chico State baseball team is expected to rely heavily on the players returning from last season's team. Tyler Stofiel is not one that casual fans would have likely recognized prior to Friday. Stofiel redshirted last season and won the starting catching job this season as a freshman. He showed why during the Wildcats' 4–3 California Collegiate Athletic Association-opening win against Stanislaus State Friday, banging out two hits, scoring the Wildcats' first two runs, and throwing out both runners who attempted to steal against him.
 
Stofiel also had a nice rapport with starting pitcher Hunter Haworth, who twirled a complete-game seven hitter.
 
Haworth continued his torrid start to the season. The junior did not allow a hit until a bunt single leading off the sixth, struck out seven, and improved to 2-1 with the win.  

The Wildcats improved to 8-4 overall and 1-0 in the CCAA. Stanislaus State slipped to 10-2 overall and 0-1 in conference play.
 
The Wildcats led from the third inning on, but Haworth had to work out of a major jam in the ninth. The Warriors got a bloop single, infield hit, and another bloop single to fill the bases with one down. Haworth made a nice sliding grab of a popped up bunt with two runners on for the first out.
 
A ground out to third trimmed the lead to 4–3 and put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, but Sonny Cortez tracked down a fly ball near the warning track in center field to end the game and finish Haworth's first collegiate nine-inning complete game. He had gone the route twice in seven-inning affairs.

 

The Wildcats opened the scoring in the third. Stofiel led off with a sharp single to center, advanced to second on Casey Henderson's sacrifice bunt, and scored on Andrew Carrillo's double down the right-field line.
 
Carrillo was making his first start since getting hurt in his first at-bat of last season and missing the rest of the season.
 
Stofiel helped make it 2–0 in the fifth. Following his one-out infield single, he moved to second on a grounder, and scored on Sonny Cortez's base hit.
 
After Stanislaus State cut the lead in half in the top of the sixth, the Wildcats answered. Andru Cardenas led off with a bunt single, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch, and scored on Cameron Santos' grounder.
 
They tacked on an important insurance run in the eighth with two pinch hits. Josh Falco led off the inning with a pinch-hit double to left, and two batters later, pinch hitter Jimbo Pernetti lined an RBI-single to left.
 
Stanislaus State chipped away in the eighth as Kent Woods picked up his second straight RBI-double. But Stofiel threw out Woods attempting to steal third, and Haworth got his seventh strikeout to end the inning.
 
The series continues Saturday with a single game at noon at Nettleton Stadium, and concludes with a doubleheader Sunday in Turlock beginning at 1 p.m. All three games will be broadcast locally on AM-1290 KPAY.