POMONA – The Chico State baseball team tried to recover from a four-run deficit, but San Francisco State was able to hang on to win the CCAA Championship opening round 6-4 Wednesday at Cal Poly Pomona's Scolinos Field.
The Wildcats' 2024 season comes to an end at 25-24 overall and 19-20 in the CCAA, finishing fifth in the conference standings.
Thade Miller had a productive day offensively, going 4-for-5 at the plate and stealing two bases. The middle of the order featuring Carson Stevens, Jeremy Keller and Stefan Foley each had two hits.
Miller opened the game with a base hit up the middle, stole second and reached third on a groundout but was left stranded.
Lyons got off to a good start by retiring the first two batters he faced. He got into a bases-loaded jam due to an error, an intentional walk and a hit batsman, but the right-hander got a ground ball to second for Pascual to record the third out and keep the Gators off the board.
The second inning started with Keller and Foley hitting back-to-back singles through the right side. Elijah Pascual laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners over and Patrick Barnum hit a ground ball to short that was enough for Keller to score and give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.
It was back to the top of the order for Chico State in the third inning. Miller led off with his second hit through the left side, Vierra was hit by the pitch and it setup Stevens for an RBI single up the middle to put the Wildcats ahead 2-0.
SF State responded in its half of the inning in a big way. A leadoff double, back-to-back singles and another two-bagger plated four runs and put the Gators ahead 4-2.
Down 6-2, Chico State did get two of those runs back in its half of the fifth inning. With one out, Stevens singled to third and Keller doubled down the left field line. On that play, a fielding error by the Gators' left fielder allowed Stevens to score. Pascual knocked in the second run with a base hit up the middle.
The Wildcats also saw stellar defense at certain points of the game. In the sixth inning, the Gators' leadoff man reached base and with one out Michael Baker snagged a hard-hit line drive and was able to make the throw to first for an inning-ending double play. In the following inning, Joseph Loubert put the first two runners on and Marco Ibarra came in and backed him up by getting three outs, including an inning-ending double play, to keep the deficit at two runs.
The Gators tallied 10 hits on the evening. Derek Laferriere had two of those hits and drove in four runs, the first being a two-run single in the third inning that broke the 2-2 tie and then the following inning when he doubled in two runs that turned out to be the difference in the game.
