Hilario Tovar worked into the eighth inning and combined with reliever Dan Beavers on a five-hitter as the Chico State baseball team shut out visiting UC San Diego to move within a game of a crucial series victory with a 7-0 victory Saturday afternoon at Nettleton Stadium. However, the Wildcats could not nail down the series win, falling 11-2 in the second game.
 
They will get another chance Monday when the series concludes with a single game at 11 a.m.
 
Chico State is now 20-15 overall and 16-13 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. UC San Diego is 20-12 overall and 16-11 in the CCAA. The Tritons enter Monday's game in a tie for second place in the CCAA. Chico State is one of a number of teams hot on the Tritons' tails. Just one game separates six teams in the race for second. Cal State Monterey Bay currently leads the conference standings at 19-8.
 
Tovar's toughness was on full display as he worked out of a number of jams to improve to 4-4 on the season. The senior transfer from San Jose State combined with Beavers to keep the Tritons hitless in 13 at-bats with runners on base and shut them out for the first time since May 7, 2015.
 
In seven-and-a-third innings of work, Tovar allowed just four hits and walked three. He struck out a trio of hitters and induced double plays to end the first and fifth. Beavers retired the last five hitters, allowing a hit and a walk, getting a pair of double plays, and striking out the final hitter of the game.

Louie Canjura hit his first home run of the season and drove in three to pace Chico State's offense. Dustin Miller and Kyle Blakeman also had three hits apiece and Tyler Stofiel a pair. With one out in the fourth, Miller and Stofiel singled in succession. Blakeman followed with an RBI single, and RJ Hassey drove in two more runs with a double inside the third-base bag. Canjura's RBI single gave the Wildcats a four-run inning and 5-0 lead.
 
Miller, Stofiel and Blakeman all singled to start the second and scored on Hassey's double-play grounder to stake Chico State to the lead.
 
Canjura's two-run bomb to right in the eighth capped the scoring.
 
The Tritons flipped the script in the second game, scoring three runs in the first (after scoring just two over their first 18 innings of the series). They led 5-0 before Casey Henderson gave the Wildcats some life with a two-run homer over the left-field wall in the fifth.
 
But the Tritons put up crooked numbers in the sixth and seventh to put the game away.

Monday's series finale will feature live audio and video streams and a link to live stats. All three links can be found on the baseball schedule page.