SAN BERNARDINO—With the February's showers came plenty of bunting practice for the Chico State baseball team. That practice paid off Sunday, helping key the Wildcats' 7-3 victory against Cal State San Bernardino at Fiscalini Field, as their march through March continued.
Bunts propelled the Wildcats' manufactured fifth-inning run and their five-run uprising in the eighth as they won their ninth game in a row and seventh in seven days while completing a four-game road sweep of the Coyotes.
Chico State is now 13-7 overall and 9-6 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. Cal State San Bernardino, which had won three straight against Cal Poly Pomona prior to this weekend's series, fell to 9-15 overall and 6-13 in the CCAA.
Chico State starter Andrew Lopez took a no-hitter into the sixth and earned the win, improving to 2-1, allowing one run on four hits in seven innings of work. Lopez struck out six and walked one in earning his second win in seven days.
Daniel Foret followed with a scoreless and hitless eighth, and Gilbert Romero got the last two outs of the game, both via strikeout, in collecting his first save as a Wildcat. Romero is the sixth Chico State pitcher to nail down a save this season.
The Wildcats grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first and never trailed. JT Navarro drew a leadoff walk, moved up to second on a wild pitch, went to third on Brandon Hernandez's grounder to second, and scored on Dustin Miller's grounder to second.
Jorge Perez went 2-for-3 and laid down a sacrifice bunt to help the
Wildcats double their lead in the fifth and contributed an RBI single
during Chico State's five-run eighth.
Chico State doubled its lead in the fifth. Myles Moran drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second on Jorge Perez's sacrifice bunt, and after getting to third on Tyler Grissom's groundout, scampered home on a wild pitch to make it 2-0.
Lopez retired 10 straight between a pair of hit batsmen—one in the first and one in the fifth. Both of those baserunners were erased by Moran while attempting to steal.
Lopez took a no-hitter into the sixth and got a goundout leading off the inning before a sharp single to left broke it up. A stolen base gave the Coyotes their first runner in scoring position before the senior right-hander finished the frame with a strikeout.
Consecutive singles with one out in the seventh and a two-out RBI single ended the shutout bid, but Lopez induced an inning-ending grounder to preserve the Wildcats' 2-1 lead.
Chico State broke the game open with a five-run eighth. Navarro doubled leading off the frame and Hernandez laid down a bunt that was thrown wildly to first, allowing Navarro to score and Hernandez to reach second. Dustin Miller then bunted Hernandez over to third ahead of Alex DeVito's RBI-single.
Kyle Pineda's sacrifice fly and RBI singles by Perez and Tyler Grissom stretched the lead to 7-1.
Perez finished with two hits and Navarro scored a pair of runs. All nine Chico State starters registered at least one hit, and eight of the nine had at least one run scored or one RBI.
The Wildcats, now 9-0 on the road, hope to bring that momentum back home for a four-game series against Cal State LA beginning Friday at 6 p.m. The matchup features two of the CCAA's hottest teams. The Golden Eagles (11-12 overall and 10-9 in the CCAA) are coming off a four-game sweep of Stanislaus State and have won seven in a row.
