SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – After the eighth-ranked Chico State baseball team opened the CCAA schedule with a 10-9 win over San Francisco State Friday, the Gators returned the favor Saturday by putting up the exact same result in their favor to even the four-game series.
Game two was in the sixth inning when Maloney Field became too dark to finish. San Francisco State was leading Chico State 3-0 going into the top of the sixth inning. The two will pick up where they left off Sunday at noon and will play game four after.
Chico State was 8-3 overall and 1-1 in conference play going into the second game of the doubleheader. San Francisco State, meanwhile, has a 5-4 overall, 1-1 conference record.
Game one of the doubleheader was again in favor of the bats instead of the pitching. After collecting 29 hits in Friday's opener, Saturday saw each team rack up 14 hits. Troy Kent had four of those knocks for Chico State.
Chico State got off to another promising start to the game by scoring one run in the first and five in the second to take a 6-0 lead. Michael Baker doubled in Kent for the first run and five straight batters got on base and scored in the second inning. Thade Miller highlighted the inning with a two-run double to right center and Kent brought him in with a single up the middle.
After the Gators answered back with two runs in their half of the second, the Wildcats got one of those runs back in the third thanks to three straight singles from Carson Case, Casey Vogan and Lorenzo Mariani to take a 7-2 lead.
That five-run lead was erased in the fifth inning and the Gators moved ahead 10-7 with a solo home run in the sixth and a two-run shot in the eighth.
Chico State had a rally going in the ninth. Daniel Vierra led off with a walk, pinch-hitter Elijah Pascual, Baker and Sean Pauly each singled to keep the line moving with nobody out. The Gators did get two outs after but Mariani singled in Pascual to make it a one-run game. Miller came up unlucky in trying to tie or move ahead as he hit into a game-ending fielder's choice.
The second game of the doubleheader saw SF State taking a 3-0 lead after two innings of play. Chico State had stranded a runner on second base each of the first three innings.
Chico State has only two hits in the game, both by Vierra. Jeremy Keller was the pitcher on the mound for the Wildcats. He threw five innings with seven strikeouts and a walk allowed.
