STOCKTON—On the eve of the California Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament, the Chico State baseball team received some exciting news. Andrew Lopez and Alex DeVito were named First Team All-CCAA, JT Navarro Second Team All-CCAA, and Grant Larson honorable mention All-CCAA.
The Wildcats are hoping it's the first of many things to cheer about this week in Stockton as they play for the CCAA Tournament title and an automatic berth in the NCAA Championship Tournament at Banner Island Ballpark. They'll open the tournament with a first-round game against Stanislaus State Wednesday at 7 p.m.
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Wednesday's CCAA Tournament opener took on an air of greater importance with the release of this morning's NCAA Regional rankings. The Wildcats debuted in the rankings at No. 7. Stanislaus State is No. 5. The winners of this week's CCAA and Great Northwest Athletic Conference tournaments will receive automatic entry into the NCAA Championship Tournament, along with Azusa Pacific, which already claimed the Pacific West Conference's automatic bid with its PacWest regular-season title. That leaves three at-large bids, which both Chico State and Stanislaus State appear to be in play for.
Andrew Lopez
A CCAA Pitcher of the Year nominee, Lopez put together one of the most impressive regular seasons by a starting pitcher in Chico State baseball history. DeVito enters rare air, becoming only the sixth Chico State player to earn consecutive First Team All-CCAA honors. Navarro has quickly established himself as one of the top all-around shortstops in Division II baseball. Larson has cracked Chico State's career top 10 in strikeouts, starts, appearances and innings pitched during a junior season in which he's earned two CCAA Pitcher of the Week and one National Pitcher of the Week honors.
Lopez won a starting role in his senior season after making 12 appearances in relief last year after transferring from LA Southwestern Community College. The 5-foot-11 right-hander has not allowed more than three earned runs in any of his 15 appearances (12 starts) and sports an earned run average of 1.48.
That mark leads the CCAA, ranks fifth in the nation, and ranks fourth in the history of Chico State's program among those with at least 50 innings of work. Alex Carbajal (1.43) is the only Wildcat to finish a season with a sub-1.50 ERA since Lynn Sparks' 1.42 mark in 1967. And over the past 50 seasons, only Troy Neiman, Ivan Hernandez, and Hunter Haworth have allowed fewer hits per nine innings of work than Lopez's 6.78 mark.
Lopez has done his strongest work over his last six appearances, allowing only three earned runs for a 0.76 ERA.
Despite his amazing season, Lopez did not appear to be disappointed that he was not named the conference's pitcher of the year. Instead, he tweeted a note of congratulations to the winner of the award and former LA Southwestern teammate Brandon Weed of UC San Diego.
DeVito is a First Team selection for the second season in a row after leading the Wildcats in nearly every offensive category. The senior designated hitting is batting .347 with 11 doubles, six home runs and 34 RBI. He has slugged .529 with an on-base percentage of .440. He's been hit by pitches a CCAA-high 16 times.
Alex DeVito
The slugger is heading into the postseason on a roll, hitting .429 over his past six games.
The sixth back-to-back First Team All-CCAA selection in the program's history, DeVito joins Bao-nhan Vinh (1999–00), Nick Bryant (2006–07), Josh Meagher (2008–09), Nick Baker (2013–14) and Luke Barker (2014–15).
Navarro made an immediate name for himself with his strong defense at shortstop, and that has continued throughout the season. Among conference players with 100 or more assists, Navarro's .970 fielding percentage ranks second. But his bat has come around of late as well.
Navarro's hitting .472 during his current 10-game hitting streak to raise his average to .341. He ranks 10
thin the CCAA in batting average during conference play at .348 and paces the Wildcats in doubles (11) and runs scored (36).
Larson is 6-4 with a 4.06 ERA and leads Chico State in innings pitched (82.0) and strikeouts (65). The southpaw ranks sixth in program history with 164 strikeouts, seventh in appearances (53), ninth in starts (29), and tenth in innings pitched (189.2).
The Wildcats will look to those four to help lead the charge on their quest for their third CCAA Tournament title in four years and sixth all time.
They enter the tournament with a record of 28-19 and winners of seven of their last eight games.
Chico State and Stanislaus State split their season series with the Warriors winning a pair in Chico on February 17 and Chico State returning the favor last Saturday in Turlock. All four games were decided by three runs or fewer. The Wildcats are also 2-2 this season against Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State Monterey and dropped three of four against UC San Diego and San Francisco State.
The winner of Friday night's first-round game will take on Wednesday afternoon's San Francisco State-Cal State Monterey Bay winner in the six-team, double-elimination tournament. The loser of Friday night's game will face Wednesday morning's Cal Poly Pomona-UC San Diego winner Thursday at 3 p.m.
Below is the CCAA Tournament schedule:
2019 CCAA Baseball Tournament
Banner Island Ballpark | Stockton
Wednesday, May 8
Game 1 – 11 a.m. – No. 6 Cal Poly Pomona vs. No. 1 UC San Diego
Game 2 – 3 p.m. – No. 5 San Francisco State vs. No. 2 Cal State Monterey Bay
Game 3 – 7 p.m. – No. 4 Stanislaus State vs.
No. 3 Chico State
Thursday, May 9
Game 4 – 11 a.m.: loser of Game 1 vs. loser of Game 2 (elimination game)
Game 5 – 3 p.m.: winner of Game 1 vs. loser of Game 3 (possible elimination)
Game 6 – 7 p.m.: winner of Game 2 vs. winner of Game 3
Friday, May 10
(if 4 teams remain after game 6)
Game 7 – 11 a.m.: winner of Game 5 vs. winner of Game 6
Game 8 – 3 p.m.: winner of Game 4 vs. loser of Game 6 (elimination game)
Game 9 – 7 p.m.: loser of Game 7 vs. winner of Game 8 (elimination game)
(if 5 teams remain after game 6)
Game 7 – 11 a.m.: loser of Game 5 vs. loser of Game 6* (elimination game)
Game 8 – 3 p.m.: winner of Game 4 vs. winner of Game 5* (elimination game)
Game 9 – 7 p.m.: winner of Game 6 vs. winner of Game 7* (possible elimination)
Saturday, May 11
(if 2 teams remain after game 9)
Game 10 – 12 p.m.: winner of Game 7 vs. winner of Game 9
Game 11 – 4 p.m.: rematch, if necessary
(if 5 teams remain after Game 6 + 2 after Game 9)
Game 10 – 12 p.m.: winner of Game 8 vs. winner of Game 9
Game 11 – 4 p.m.: rematch, if necessary
(if 5 teams remain after Game 6 + 3 after Game 9)
Game 10 – 12 p.m.: winner of Game 8 vs. loser Game 9
Game 11 – 4 p.m.: winner of Game 9 vs. winner of Game 10
