LOS ANGELES – The Chico State baseball team scored eight runs in the late innings that proved to be difference as the Wildcats halted Cal State LA's five-run ninth inning rally to beat the Golden Eagles 11-8 Sunday afternoon and take the CCAA series.
The Wildcats, who have been on the downside when playing on Sunday the last three weeks until today, improve to 16-9 overall and 11-9 in the CCAA. It is also the second conference series win for Chico State.
The Golden Eagles fall to 13-13 overall, 7-9 in the conference.
While the Wildcats picked up the win on 13 hits, Troy Kent did not record any of those and saw his hitting streak stopped at 22 games. He will now share the program record with Daniel Code, who reached that mark in 2007.
Daniel Vierra had quite a day at the plate, going 3-for-3 with two home runs. He hit a two-run jack in the first inning and a solo shot in the eighth that was perhaps an extra insurance policy.
It was a great series for Vierra, who went 8-for-13 with four home runs and drove in nine RBIs. While the Wildcats outscored the Golden Eagles 49-28 in the series, they also outslugged them .652 to LA's .486.
Dylan Day got the starting nod and went 3.1 innings, striking out two but was charged a run on four hits and a walk. Jeremy Keller came into relief in the fourth inning when the Golden Eagles were threatening with runners at the corners and one out. The two-way right-hander got an inning-ending double play to end the threat. He eventually picked up the win after throwing 2.2 innings with two strikeouts.
Chico State had a 3-1 lead for two innings and then began a scoring rhythm in the late innings, scoring one run in the fifth, two in the sixth, four in the seventh and one more in the eighth.
Errors began to haunt the Wildcats in the ninth inning as back-to-back inning-opening errors began to give the Golden Eagles hope. With the bases loaded and nobody out, the Wildcats got a groundball to first and traded the first out for a run. Los Angeles got another run in with an RBI single and a two-out double cut the lead down to four. The Golden Eagles then shrunk the lead to three when another error allowed the eighth run to score.
Chico State was able to stop the bleeding and end the game by getting a ground ball to short for the final out.
It will be a short week of preparation as Cal State Dominguez Hills visits Nettleton Stadium beginning Thursday at 6 p.m. The last-place Toros are coming off having split their four-game series with the defending NCAA West Region champions Cal State San Bernardino in Carson this weekend.
