Dave Taylor looked out the window every few minutes Saturday. The showers wouldn't stop. He heard the incessant pitter patter of the raindrops on his roof while lying in bed Sunday night. He hoped his team would have a chance to get back out on the field Monday, but with every drop of rain, that possibility diminished.
 
Taylor, Chico State's baseball coach, was anxious for his Wildcats to remember what they are capable of. That team that had lost six straight to start California Collegiate Athletic Association play—that wasn't the team he had gotten to know over the past few months.
 
Late Sunday night, the rain mercifully ceased. On Monday, the sun peaked through the dark clouds. Literally and figuratively.
 
Chico State stopped its losing skid with a doubleheader sweep of 27^th-ranked Cal State Monterey Bay at Nettleton Stadium. Grant Larson made Wildcats history with a complete-game, one-hit shutout in a 5-0 win in the opener. In the nightcap, freshman Dalton Smith led the way with six shutout innings in his first collegiate start and Kyle Pineda drove in the winning run in the bottom of the eighth in a 4-3 victory.
 

"We've had three bad days," Taylor told Mike Baca of Newstalk-1290 KPAY Monday morning on his pre-game radio show.  "You're looking at two months of some pretty good baseball. The body of work is there. They just have to go out and execute and do their jobs. You'll be sitting in here with me in May and we'll be reflecting on February and on what a great spot we're in two months later. I believe in that. I believe in them. We're going to get it done." 

The Wildcats improved to 6-7 overall and 2-6 in the CCAA. Cal State Monterey Bay fell to 10-8 overall and 8-4 in the CCAA.
  
Larson set the tone early, retiring the first 10 hitters he faced, five via strikeout. He struck out the side in the second, a huge momentum builder after the offense put three runs on the board in the first.
 
JT Navarro led off with an infield single, Brandon Hernandez bunted him to second, and Eddie Zavala singled home the game's first run. Two walks and two hit batters later, the Wildcats led 3-0.
 
Larson issued his only walk of the game with one down in the fourth, and then surrendered the Otters' first and only hit, a ringing double into right center.
 
"I knew they had a lefty on deck and I knew if I got the guy with one out I could get the lefty," Larson said following the game.
 
He did get the first guy—reigning CCAA Player of the Week and Otters cleanup hitter Brian Morley—striking him out swinging. He got the lefty—2018 First Team All-West Region selection Kyle Czaplak—too. Czaplak went down looking for the seventh of Larson's career-high 10 punch-outs.
 
That began a stretch of 17 in a row Larson retired. No other Otter reached base.
 
When Kokko Figueiredo went down swinging to end the ninth, Larson had made Chico State history as the first Wildcat on record to complete a 9-inning, 1-hit shutout.
 
"We were all just sick and tired of watching teams coming and high-fiving on our field," said Larson.
 

Smith watched the veteran southpaw's historic performance from the dugout as he awaited the first start of his collegiate career.
 
It will not be his last. On nearly any other day, Smith's performance would have been the day's biggest news. In only his third collegiate appearance, and first start, the Chico High School product fired six shutout innings, allowing only two hits.
 
When the Wildcats broke open a scoreless game with three runs in the bottom of the sixth, Smith was in line for the win.
 
Dustin Miller grounded a single through the right side with two down to spark the rally. Pinch hitting, Pineda lined a single to center, fanning the flame. Jorge Perez poured gas on it with a double down the right field line to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead. The second pinch hitter of the inning, Aaron Lizarraga, lit up Nettleton Stadium like a Christmas tree. Otters third baseman Reed Oster ranged far to his left and toward the outfield grass to make a nice play on Lizarraga's hard-hit grounder, but his throw (after a spin) to try to get the speedy Lizarraga sailed high. Lizarraga had an RBI single and the Wildcats' third run of the inning scored on the errant throw.
 
The defending CCAA Champion Otters (who dethroned the two-time defending champion Wildcats last season), winners of eight straight heading into Monday's action, did not go quietly.
 
They put together a two-out rally of their own in the seventh, scoring twice. In the eighth, Wildcats reliever Alex Kent was called in to attempt to get Chico State out of another jam. The Otters had runners at the corners with only one down.
 
He almost did, getting a strikeout looking and getting ahead of Otters' leading hitter Mason Allen 1-2 before being called for a balk. That allowed the tying run to score. Kent eventually struck Allen out with a runner in scoring position to keep the game tied.
 
It was not tied for long. Alex DeVito drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the eighth and pinch hitter Michael Lagier went to second on the second balk of the inning. After Dustin Miller reached on a dropped fly ball, Pineda smoked a single—perhaps Chico State's biggest hit this season—into left center. Lagier raced around third to score the winning run.
 
Sid Lacy pitched the ninth for Chico State, nailing down his second save of the season.
 
The Wildcats will attempt to keep moving forward this weekend when they travel to Hayward for a four-game series at Cal State East Bay. The series is scheduled to begin Friday with a single game at 2 p.m.
 
That's the first of eight straight Chico State will play away from home before returning to Nettleton Stadium for a four-game series against Cal State LA March 22-24.