Despite a largely new cast, the Chico State baseball team produced its usual home result, winning its season opening home series last weekend, taking two of three games from the Fresno Pacific.
 
The Wildcats will aim to do the same—win the series—when Northwest Nazarene University comes to Nettleton Stadium for another three-games this weekend. First pitch for Friday's doubleheader is scheduled for 1 p.m., and the series finale is set for noon on Saturday.
 
Saturday's game will be broadcast locally on AM-1290 KPAY. All three games will be streamed live at www.ChicoWildcats.com. Links to live stats, live audio, and streaming video are available on the top-left corner of this advance, in the calendar section of the homepage, and on the men's basketball schedule page.
 
Under head coach Dave Taylor, the Wildcats have been dominant at home, both in non-conference games and overall. The Wildcats will look to start another home winning streak Friday after seeing their 15-game run end in Saturday's finale against Fresno Pacific.
 
Chico State has won 78 of 85 home games against non-conference foes in the regular season in Taylor's tenure. The Wildcats have also won 30 of their last 32 games at The Nett, including 25 of 26 last season when they won the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) regular-season title by seven games.
 
This is a brand-new season with a mostly-new cast of characters. They made a good first impression, sweeping Friday's doubleheader. Cameron Santos had a pair of two-hit games, and pitcher Casey Costello won the opener by allowing one run on five hits in five innings of work.
 
Santos' five hits in the series moved him into eighth on the program's all-time hits list with 161, ahead of Jordan Larson (2009-10) with 160, Kevin Carr(1988-91) with 159 and the 157 of Mike Barney (1986-88). In his fourth season with the Wildcats, Santos is nine hits away from the 170 of Daniel Code (2006-07) for seventh and an additional two behind Steve Gotowala (1996-97) for sixth.
 
In his first season with Chico State last year, Costello won the CCAA and West Region Pitcher of the Year awards. He struck out five in his 2018 debut after he went 12-0 last season.
 
Costello's was the first of three impressive starts by the Chico State pitching staff. Costello, Grant Larson and Hilario Tovar struck out a combined 22 batters while allowing just four runs on 11 hits and two walks in 13.2 innings.
 
Swinging the hottest bat thus far has been Dustin Miller. With three hits in each of his past two games, the outfielder is batting .583 (7-for-12) with a double, two runs scored and two RBI. Trevor Steinman, at .444 (4-for-9), and Santos, at .417 (5-for-12), aren't far behind.
 
Casey Henderson has scored four runs, and Steinman has four RBIs.
 
Santos, the reigning CCAA and West Region Player of the Year, has three runs scored and two RBIs while he, Miller, and Steinman all recorded at least one hit in all three games.
 
Chico State hasn't played Northwest Nazarene since 2013 when the Wildcats won three of four games played at Nettleton. They've also won five of six games against the Nampa, Idaho, program overall since 1994.
 
The Nighthawks enter the series with a 1-2 record after they avoided a sweep at Stanislaus State. They dropped a pair of one-run games by scores of 3-2 and 4-3 on Feb. 2, but managed a 10-8 victory on Feb. 3.
 
After this weekend, the Wildcats will be to begin CCAA play with a four-game series against Stanislaus State. The first two games will be in Turlock with the series-ending doubleheader on Feb. 18, at Nettleton Stadium.