POMONA—A series that had been highlighted by the conference's top pitching staffs, including a near no-hitter from Chico State's Casey Costello on Saturday, finally saw the offenses take control in Sunday's finale between the Wildcats and the Cal Poly Pomona baseball team.
 
The Broncos beat Chico State 12-10, leaving the two teams tussling for playoff position with a split in the four-game series.
 
The loss dropped to the Wildcats to 25-17 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) and 29-19 overall. Cal Poly Pomona moved to 22-18 in the CCAA and 25-21 overall.
 
The teams entered the penultimate series of the regular season with the Wildcats in third place in the CCAA and the Broncos fourth. In the West Region rankings, Chico State was seventh with Cal Poly Pomona eighth. Six teams qualify for the CCAA tournament and six teams advance to the West Regional.
 
The Wildcats know they'll be in the former as they clinched a CCAA berth Saturday with a win and losses from Sonoma State and San Francisco State. They could be paired up against these same Broncos in their first game of the CCAA tourney as the series split left both teams where they started the series—in third place and fourth, respectively. The tourney, which begins Wednesday, May 9 at Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton, pairs the first-place team against the sixth-place squad, second against fifth, and third against fourth.
 
Cal State Monterey Bay (27-13 CCAA) leads UC San Diego (26-14) by a game for first place. After the Wildcats (25-17) in third place, the Broncos (22-18) are ahead of four teams clustered close behind, all of them fighting for their own CCAA tourney bids: Cal State LA (21-19), San Francisco State (21-19), Sonoma State (20-20), and Cal State East Bay (20-20). Three CCAA spots remain after the Otters, Tritons, and Wildcats already locked up bids.
 
Chico State won the tournament last year and the automatic berth into the NCAA's West Regional that goes with it.
 
Cal Poly Pomona has a four-game series with Cal State Dominguez Hills to finish the regular season while Chico State closes the regular season with a doubleheader against Stanislaus State that begins at 2 p.m. on Friday at Nettleton Stadium. The games can be heard on the KPAY Sports app and kpaysports.com. Links to Live Stats, audio, and video can be found on the baseball schedule page and the calendar section of the homepage for Wildcats Athletics. 
 
The twin bill's games are make-up contests from a Feb. 18 doubleheader that was postponed.
 
Those games probably won't have the offensive fireworks as Sunday's game did. The Wildcats have been getting quality starts over the past month from Grant Larson, Costello and company, and they'll likely see Joe Ryan in one of those games. The standout Stanislaus pitcher is the favorite for CCAA Pitcher of the Year. The Wildcats did give him his first loss in the Feb. 16 conference opener in Turlock as Costello threw seven shutout innings, and Dan Beavers took care of the final two innings of a 1-0 victory.
 
In another 1-0 triumph, Costello came within an out of a no-hitter in Saturday's seven-inning game of a doubleheader against the Broncos. That was after Larson pitched into the eighth inning while allowing one run in the series opener that went to the Wildcats 5-1. 
 
But on Sunday, praiseworthy pitching performances wouldn't be so plentiful. The Wildcats scored a run in the top of the first inning, getting the game started. The lead was short-lived. The Broncos batted around in the home half of the inning, scoring five runs.
 
The Wildcats answered with three runs in the second inning, drawing within 5-4 as Casey Henderson had a run-scoring single and Cameron Santos drove in two with his single.
 
Pomona plated three more runs in the third, increasing its advantage to 8-4.
 
The Wildcats then tied the game with a four-run sixth. Kyle Blakeman's two-run double sliced the margin in half while Alex DeVito's single scored Blakeman. RJ Hassey's second double of the day drove in Santos for an 8-all score.
 
Hassey was 3 of 5 with two doubles and two runs batted in. He was 9 of 16 in the series, batting .563. 

 

Blakeman continued his hot hitting of April as well. He reached base in all six of his plate appearances on Sunday, going 4 of 4 with three singles, a double and was twice hit by pitches. He scored three runs and drove in two. For the month, he batted .468 (29 of 62), helping the Wildcats win series by taking three of four games against UC San Diego, Cal State San Marcos, and Cal State Dominguez Hills before splitting with Cal Poly Pomona. Chico State went 11-5 in April.
 
Santos had two hits, three RBIs, and a run scored on Sunday. Casey Henderson had two hits, two runs scored and an RBI. Both Louie Canjura and Turner Olson delivered two hits and a run scored.
 
The Broncos, though, took the lead for good with a four-run seventh. Two Wildcat errors helped fuel the rally as all four runs charged to Beavers (1-2) were unearned. Their third miscue of the day came in the five-run first inning.
 
Chico State again staged a comeback, this time in the eighth. Blakeman was hit by a pitch. Canjura and Santos both singled to load the bases with no outs. A Hassey single scored Blakeman, and Tyler Stofiel was hit by a pitch as Canjura scored. A fly ball from Olson nearly scored Santos, but he was thrown out at home, ending the rally with the Wildcats trailing 12-10.
 
Chico State mustered a two-out opportunity in the ninth. Blakeman singled again before Canjura's slow chopper to third base put the tying run on base. A fly ball to center field ended the game, though.
 
The Wildcats outhit the Broncos 16-11, but they left 11 runners on base to Pomona's five.
 
If Chico State sweeps Stanislaus State in Friday's doubleheader, the Wildcats clinch no worse than third place in the CCAA. A split or worse gives Cal Poly Pomona a chance to leap the Wildcats depending on how the Broncos fare against Dominguez Hills in the four-game series.