The Chico State and Sonoma State baseball teams return to the field after each had a bit of a break.
 
The Wildcats had their series with Stanislaus State shortened after their doubleheader was postponed once water was discovered on Nettleton Stadium's field Saturday night.
 
Sonoma State's rest was more conventional. The Seawolves didn't have a series scheduled last week.
 
The two California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) teams get back to baseball with a four-game series in Rohnert Park. The first game between the longstanding rivals is at 2 p.m. Friday before am 11 a.m. doubleheader Saturday, and noon series finale on Sunday.
 
Saturday's first game and Sunday's will be broadcast locally on AM 1290-KPAY. Links for audio and Live Stats for all four games are available at www.chicowildcats.com in the calendar section on the homepage and on the baseball schedule page. A video stream of Sunday's game will also be available.
 
The ninth-ranked Wildcats began conference play by splitting two games with the Warriors in Turlock.
 
The two games could be looked at two ways. The Wildcats managed to win a game despite scoring just one earned run, or the Wildcats won one game despite allowing just one earned run.
 
Either way, Chico State's pitching has been stellar thus far. The Wildcats (5-3) lead the 12-team CCAA in earned run average (ERA) at 2.69.
 
The starters have been even better. Casey Costello has an ERA of 0.95. No conference hurler has thrown more innings than the 19 of Costello, the 2017 West Region and CCAA Pitcher of the Year. Fellow starter Hilario Tovar has a 2.30 ERA and leads conference pitchers with 27 strikeouts while Grant Larson has a 2.80 ERA and his 17 strikeouts is third in the CCAA.
 
Their individual numbers stand out. Combined, they look even more impressive. In eight starts, they have tallied 44.1 innings with 60 strikeouts, a mere three walks and an ERA of 1.83.
 
The bullpen has been led by Anthony Baleto, Andrew Lopez, and Jae Wagner, who have accounted for 8.1 innings over nine appearances, all without allowing an earned run, and Dan Beavers, who leads ranks second in the CCAA with a trio of saves.
 
Consistent production from the lineup has all that's been missing as Chico State has scored 32 runs in eight games and five times has scored three runs or fewer. The Seawolves (4-2) might offer the cure that ails the Wildcats' bats. Sonoma State's ERA is 6.48, ranking 11th of 12 CCAA teams. The Seawolves' last two games, both losses, saw Fresno Pacific score 19 and 15 runs, respectively.
 
Despite the Wildcats' limited production, there have been some offensive standouts nonetheless.
 
Cameron Santos continues his climb up the all-time lists in program history while leading today's Wildcats. The senior has an eight-game hitting streak to start the season, batting .370 (10 of 27). Santos needs four more hits to tie the 170 of Daniel Code (2006-07) for seventh in team history and two more after that is Steve Gotowala (1996-97).  With one more walk, Santos will tie former teammate Sonny Cortez (2016-17) with 71 bases on balls, good for fourth all-time. Four more total bases also gets Santos to 10th place, tying Luis Sanchez (1998-99) with 240.
 
Like Santos, Dustin Miller is also 10 of 27 for a .370 batting average. Casey Henderson has reached base in all eight games as he's 8 of 26 (.308) with five walks. Alex DeVito's .571 slugging percentage tops the team.
 
Sonoma State (4-2) started its season by sweeping Holy Names before dropping two of three at Fresno Pacific in a series that wrapped up on Feb. 10.
 
Since 1994, Chico State leads the series against Sonoma State 81-54.