When a team reaches the postseason, it knows the competition is going to be a lot tougher than most regular season opponents. The Chico State softball team has had to dig deep during the first two days of the NCAA West Regional, but each time the Wildcats have figured out a way to top some very talented teams and keep tacking on to a winning streak that has now reached 27 games. The 'Cats and California Baptist tangled in an extra-inning thriller at University Softball Field, with Ari Marsh's bases-load double in the ninth accounting for all the game's runs in Chico State's 3-0 victory over the Lancers.
 
With the win, the Wildcats improve to 52-3 on the season. More importantly, Chico State is just one victory away from moving on to next week's NCAA West Super Regional. By topping Cal Baptist in Friday's winner's bracket game, the 'Cats go into Saturday with two chances to snare the victory that would keep their national championship hopes alive.
 
Ironically, it's the same Cal Baptist team that stands in Chico State's way. The Lancers stayed alive in Friday's second tournament elimination game, knocking out UC San Diego with a 3-0 victory.

 

Saturday's West Regional championship game will get underway at 11 a.m. at University Softball Field, where the host Wildcats are a perfect 22-0 on the season. Should Cal Baptist win, the two teams will square off again at approximately 1:30 p.m., with the winner advancing in the postseason, while the loser concludes the year.
 
The Wildcats collected a half-dozen hits in Friday's win over the Lancers, with Marsh and Megan Bowley posting two hits apiece.
 
The contest featured an epic pitcher's duel between Chico State's Haley Gilham and Ciara Stapp of Cal Baptist. The two righthanders matched each other zero for zero through the first eight frames, with each hurler wiggling out of jams that potentially could have ended the game in regulation.
 
Gilham pitched around a leadoff double by the Lancers' Ali Subia in the bottom of the fourth inning, and Chico State left the bases loaded in the top of the sixth. In the top of the seventh, the Wildcats again got the go-ahead run into scoring position, but came away empty.
 
Gilham surrendered a leadoff double to Halle Rosario in the bottom of the seventh, and the Lancers eventually loaded the bases. But Cal Baptist was once again turned away, as a groundout by Brittany Galvez ended the threat and sent the game into extra innings.
 
In the eighth, the 'Cats wasted a one-out double by Karli Skowrup, while the Lancers stranded the potential winning run at second base in their half of the frame. The game remained scoreless heading into the fateful ninth inning.
 
Amanda Flores got aboard to lead things off, reaching on a Cal Baptist error. After Bowley advanced pinch-runner Angel Lopez to second with a sacrifice bunt, Wendy Cardinali and Kristin Worley loaded the bases with back-to-back hit by pitches. That brought Marsh to the plate, who blasted a laser into the left-center field gap, plating all three Wildcat baserunners and putting Chico State in front.
 
Cal Baptist had no answer for Marsh's late-inning heroics, mustering only a single in the its half of the ninth as Gilham put one more goose-egg on the Lancers' side of the scoreboard to nail down Chico State's 3-0 victory.
 
The shutout was Gilham's 15th of the year and raised her season record to 28-2.
 
Given the recent past, it's fitting that Chico State and Cal Baptist go head-to-head Saturday for the West Region title. This marks the fourth straight year the two teams have met with postseason elimination at stake. The Wildcats ended the Lancers' 2016 and 2017 seasons with NCAA tournament wins, while Cal Baptist eliminated Chico State in the 2015 West Regional.