Five Chico State pitchers combined on a six-hit shutout as the Wildcats' pitching staff ran its scoreless innings streak to 21 in Sunday's series finale against Cal State San Bernardino. With the 9-0 win, the Wildcats have now swept or taken three out of four in all four of their home series this season at Nettleton Stadium.
Wildcats starter Josh Verdon went the first four frames, allowing only two hits and walking a pair. Daniel Foret went three-and-two-thirds to earn the win, improving to 2-0. Foret struck out four and allowed just a pair of singles. He also hit two batters. Connor Sealey got the final out of the eighth, and Kristian Scott and Tyler Chivens combined for a scoreless ninth.
Chico State, which entered the weekend ranked No. 27 in the nation, is now 15-7 on the season and 11-5 in the CCAA. Cal State San Bernardino fell to 7-15 and 4-12.
JT Navarro paced Chico State's offense, going 3-for-5 with a double and three RBI, Skylar Limonchi drove in a pair, and Andrew Renteria went 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored.
The Wildcats grabbed a commanding lead in the second inning and never looked back. Eddie Zavala and Aidan Rasmusson seeded the rally with back to back singles and Adam Muñoz reached on a sacrifice bunt and error to load the bases. Limonchi brought home the game's first run with a ground ball and Tyler Stofiel singled home Rasmusson. Navarro's two-out RBI-single through the left side made it 3-0.
Chico State tacked on single runs in the sixth (Rasmusson was hit by a pitch leading off the inning and later scored on an error.) and seventh (Renteria led off with a single and scored on Willie Lajoie's base hit.).
The Wildcats busted the game open with a four-run eighth. Grady Morgan started things with a one-out double and came around to score on Limonchi's two-bagger. Limonchi eventually came around to score on a wild pitch and then Navarro smacked a two-run double down the left-field line to cap the day's scoring.
Lajoie has now hit safely in seven consecutive games and continues to lead the CCAA in hitting (among those with enough at-bats to qualify) with an average of .410.
Chico State will now hit the road for eight straight and 18 of their next 22. They'll host Cal State Dominguez Hills for a four-game set April 4–5 and then return home for a doubleheader against Stanislaus State on April 26 before wrapping up the regular season with a four-game home series against UC San Diego April 30–May 1.
Next weekend the Wildcats will be at Cal State LA four a scheduled four-game set. It begins with a single game Friday at 6 p.m., continues with a doubleheader Saturday at 1 p.m., and concludes with a single game Sunday at 11 a.m. Friday's game will not be on the radio, but the next three games of the series will be aired locally on AM-1290 KPAY Sports.
