AZUSA—If ever there was a blissful 10-hour bus ride, the Chico State baseball team experienced it Sunday. The Wildcats wrapped up a three-game season-opening series at 21^st-ranked Azusa Pacific with a 13-3 victory at Cougar Baseball Complex, salvaging the series and perhaps even exorcising some demons on a diamond on which they had lost six in a row.
 
Grant Larson threw seven strong innings, allowing two runs on three hits while striking out eight, and the Wildcats erupted for four runs in the fifth, four in the eighth, and five more in the ninth, improving to 1-2.
 
Willie LaJoie's three-run homer capped Chico State's four-run fifth and Eddie Zavala and Tyler Grissom knocked in two runs apiece in the eighth. Eight different Wildcats had at least one hit, eight scored at least one run, and seven drove in at least one run.
 
Grissom went 2-for-5, drove in two runs, and scored two more. Zavala reached base four times with a two-run double and three walks, and scored three runs. Adam Muñoz and Kyle Pineda chipped in two hits apiece.
 
The Wildcats will open their home campaign with a three-game series against Fresno Pacific beginning with a single game Friday at 3 p.m. and concluding with a doubleheader Saturday at 11 a.m.
 
Azusa Pacific, the preseason favorite to win its fifth consecutive Pacific West Conference title and ranked as high as No. 12 in the nation according to one national poll, struggled to get anything going against Chico State's pitching all weekend. In fact, Chico State's hurlers held the Cougars to a .181 batting average while striking out 27 in 23 innings of work.
 
But Larson was the most dominant of them all. After allowing a two-out double in the first, the senior left hander retired the next 13 Cougars, six via strikeout, and did not allow another hit until the seventh inning. Larson's second strikeout of the day moved him into fifth, ahead of Pete Mickartz on the program's career strikeouts list.
 
The Wildcats gave him a lead to work with in the fifth. After Zavala's leadoff walk and Tyler Stofiel's sacrifice bunt, Grissom gave them a 1-0 lead with an RBI single down the right field line. Cody Wissler's infield single with two down set the stage for the game's biggest blast—LaJoie's opposite-field homer to right that made it 4-0.
 
The Cougars, who had only one hit heading into the seventh, finally got on the board with back-to-back solo shots against Larson to open the frame, but he retired the next three hitters to finish his afternoon with a 4-2 lead.
 
Chico State blew the game open in the eighth. Pineda led off with a single, Muñoz was hit by a pitch, and Nate Maggi reached on an error to load the bases. Maggi hit a hard smash down the line that was deflected back toward home plate and the pitcher covering could not make the catch trying to cover the bag.
 
That set the stage for Zavala, who was responsible for the Wildcats' lone run during Friday's 5-0, 3-1 sweep. The senior nearly hit a grand slam. Instead, his blast to straight-away center hit off the top of the fence for a two-run double and 6-2 lead.
 
One batter later, Grissom ripped a two-run single down the left-field line to make it 8-2.
 
It looked like the Wildcats might need that cushion in the bottom half of the frame when the Cougars loaded the bases with one out. But Alex Kent came on to get a big strikeout, and after walking in a run, got another strikeout to end the threat.
 
Chico State put the game away with a five run rally in the top of the ninth sparked by Muñoz's one-out double. Maggi reached on a strike three wild pitch before Zavala walked to fill the bases.
 
The first run scored when Stofiel was hit by a pitch. Grissom followed, reaching on a fielders' choice RBI and error. Navarro was hit by a pitch to plate another run. Wissler hit a sacrifice fly to left for another. And Pineda drove in the fifth and final run of the frame with a single to left.
 
Kristian Scott, making his first appearance of the season, worked around a pair of singles in a scoreless ninth.
 
Chico State out-hit the Cougars for the third straight game, 11-7. The Wildcats also finished the series with just one error.