CHICO – Troy Kent had a four-hit day, including a trio of doubles that knocked in six RBIs as the Chico State baseball team swept a doubleheader with Simpson, 10-4 and 10-2, on Tuesday afternoon.
 
Chico State moves to 5-0 on the season as it will wait 10 days before opening the CCAA schedule at Cal Poly Pomona on February 23. First pitch at Scolinos Field is at 6 p.m.
 
Nine different pitchers were used throughout the day and were all had an combined impressive performance: striking out 16 batters and giving up a walk late into each game.
 
Game 1 – CHICO 10, SIMPSON 3
Though both sides finished with 11 hits, the Red Hawks appeared to be more aggressive with their bats throughout the game.
 
For Chico State, it was Troy Kent who had a productive day at the plate, going 3-for-5 with five RBIs. He was retired in his first two plate appearances and then he recorded a pair of clutch two-run doubles along with a single. His first double in the fifth inning gave Chico State a 4-1 lead and his second came in the ninth that was a nail in the coffin, cementing the 10-3 score.
 
Simpson was the one that got on the scoreboard first in the third inning. With runners at the corners, No. 2 hitter Brady Meeds hit a deep fly ball that was caught at the right field wall in foul territory that drove in the game's first run.
 
The Wildcats did respond in their half of the third. Daniel Vierra led off with a single to right center. Head coach Dave Taylor called for a hit-and-run play on Elijah Pascual. It worked as his single to right was poorly fielded that allowed Vierra to score easily to tie the game.
 
One inning later, Stefan Foley hit a one-out single and a Neko Capsaliaris double put both runners in scoring position. Unfortunately, only one run was cashed in when Jesse Gadd hit a sacrifice fly in right field foul territory to give the Wildcats the lead.
 
Starter Kevin Lyons went four innings before turning it over to the bullpen. He had an impressive line of seven strikeouts, a walk and four hits while giving up four hits on 64 pitches. Eddie Curley, who took the win, threw two shutout innings. Tyce Ochs came in the seventh and got the first two outs but ran into trouble that resulted two runs to cut the Wildcats' lead to 4-3. Marco Ibarra picked up his teammate by getting the No. 3 hitter Alex Tolbert to strikeout to preserve the lead. Ibarra went on to throw a clean eighth inning with a strikeout.
 
The game was put out of reach in the eighth inning, scoring five runs including the two-run double by Kent.
 
Jeremy Keller threw a shutout ninth inning giving up a single.
 
Game 2 – CHICO 10, SIMPSON 2
It took only two pitches into the game that got runners at the corners against starter Ethan Lay. While a groundout was enough to get the first run of the game, Lay limited it to the one run by getting a double play to end the inning.
 
The Wildcats were quiet in the first inning but did all the damage in the second and third inning. Beginning with the second inning, Ryan Blanchard was on first with one out when back-to-back doubles by Carson Stevens and Thade Miller gave the 'Cats a 2-1 lead. In the following inning, Pascual and Kent each opened with walks and a Stefan Foley sacrifice bunt moved them in to scoring position and set up a two-run single from Blanchard.
 
Lay went on to pitch four innings for his second win of the season, striking out four and issuing no walks. Caden Reitzenstein, Joseph Loubert and Ryan Silvers threw shutout innings of relief. Loubert came in the sixth inning with Simpson threatening to tie the game having two runners on and one out and he got back-to-back swinging strikeouts to end the threat.
 
The home half of the sixth would be the runaway inning, starting with six straight hits. Blanchard doubled to start the inning off and four straight singles by Stevens, Miller, Phoenix Casias and Kaden Bass, followed by Kent's third double gave the Wildcats a 9-2 lead. Casey Vogan hit a sacrifice fly to knock in pinch-runner Andrew Crane for the 10^th run.