The Chico State baseball team completed its seventh series sweep of the season with an 8–1 victory over Cal State L.A. Saturday at Nettleton Stadium. This sweep may have been the most impressive of the bunch. Chico State won all three games with ease, outscoring the Golden Eagles (who came into the weekend 20-14) by a combined 26–10.
 
Saturday they banged out 16 hits and had 25 hitters reached base, which is their most at home this season, where they are now 18-1. On the mound, starter Cam Greenough threw seven shutout innings, allowing only an unearned run on three hits while striking out seven. Steven Baker struck out the side in the eighth and Anthony Baleto retired the Golden Eagles in order in the ninth.
 
Chico State, ranked No. 5 in the nation entering the weekend, improved to 31-7 overall and 24-3 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. Cal State L.A. slipped to 20-17 overall and 13-14 in the CCAA.
 
Baseball is a game of numbers and Greenough and Cameron Santos were wearing the right ones on Saturday. Greenough wears the number 42 and pitched a gem on Jackie Robinson Day in Major League Baseball, improving to 6-1.
 
"I'm lucky I got this number," said Greenough after the game.

Santos reached base all five times he came to the plate, going 3-for-3 with two walks. His third hit was a hard grounder just inside the first-base bag that rolled into the corner, allowing Santos to pull into third base with a stand-up triple. It was the 12^th three-bagger of number 3's career, breaking the team record held by Thom Eccleston since 1985.
 
The win whittled the Wildcats' magic number to reach the CCAA Championship Tournament even further. Two wins next weekend during their three-game home series against Cal State San Bernardino would guarantee the Wildcats their 20th postseason berth in the past 22 seasons.
 
Chico State is also inching closer to defending its CCAA title. The Wildcats will head into next weekend with a five or six game lead over UC San Diego with 12 to play, depending on the result of Tritons' series finale against Cal Poly Pomona Saturday night.
 
The Wildcats were a little shaky out of the gates Saturday, allowing an unearned run in the top of the first after the leadoff hitter reached on an error, and then getting four runners thrown out on the basepaths (including two at home plate) in the first four innings.
 
But Andrew Carrillo's sacrifice fly and Cody Snider's RBI single, along with the strong start by Greenough, had them out front 2–1 before they broke the game open in the fifth.
 
Jimbo Pernetti's two-out RBI opened the floodgates. The senior first baseman has now driven in 20 while reaching base in each of his last 14 games. After Carrillo drew a walk, Casey Henderson homered over the left-field wall for a 6–1 lead. It was his third home run of the season.
 
Santos and Pernetti pounded out three hits each, while Snider, Josh Falco, Henderson, and Tyler Stofiel had two apiece.
 
Falco, who went 2-for-3 and was hit twice, has now reached base safely in 28 straight games and boasts an on-base percentage of .539 during that stretch. By getting plunked twice Saturday, he moved onto hallowed ground in terms of Chico State baseball history. He now ranks tied for eighth in single-season history with 17 hit-by-pitches, and moved into fifth on the career list with 33. The senior left fielder is hitting .432 in conference play and .450 at Nettleton Stadium.
 
Santos, who leads the Wildcats in hitting at home (.468) and in conference play (.438), has reached base safely in 26 games in a row. Dillon Kelley has a 21-game streak going.
 
Sparked by Santos' record-breaking one-out triple, the Wildcats tacked on two more runs in the sixth. Kelley's sacrifice fly made it 7–1, and then Falco was hit by a pitch and scored on Pernetti's double down the left-field line.
 
The Wildcats will continue their 10-game homestand next weekend with a three-game series against Cal State San Bernardino. The Coyotes have dropped three straight and 12 of their last 16 to fall to 10-28 overall and 8-19 in the CCAA.
 
The series starts with a doubleheader Saturday at noon and concludes with a single game Sunday at 11 a.m. Sunday's game is also the 20-year reunion for the 1997 team that won the program's first NCAA Championship.