CHICO — The Cal State Dominguez Hills and Chico State baseball teams played to a twinbill split Saturday afternoon. The Toros were gifted with three unearned runs including two in the eighth to claim a 4-2 win in game one while the Wildcats used five unanswered runs in the eighth to run away with a 9-2 game two victory.
The rubber game is set for an 11 a.m. first pitch Sunday.
Game 1 - CSUDH 4, Chico 2
In a pitching duel in which both starters threw at least eight innings, Joe Bresson (3-2) was one out away from tossing a complete-game but a single and a walk in the ninth put the potential tying runs on base. Anthony Cortez took over and got the final out for his fourth save of the season.
Wildcat starting pitcher Clayton Gelfand (6-3) appeared to be unstoppable against the Toros (15-17, 9-13 CCAA), for only one of the four total runs scored was earned. He went on to strike out nine in eight innings thrown.
After Gelfand struck out the first two batters to start the game, Brady Conlan followed with a base hit to left and scored when Miguel Castaneda's single and an error charged to right fielder Josh Falco.
Chico State (24-10, 14-8 CCAA) scored its only two runs in the second inning. The Wildcats recorded four consecutive hits and a sacrifice fly to take a 2-1 lead.
The lead did not last long as the Toros answered back in the third when a one-out single by Nick Morelli followed by a RBI double from Conlan tied the contest 2-2.
CSUDH broke the 2-2 tie in the eighth. Conlan reached on a throwing error to lead off the inning, Castaneda singled to right and Parker Hokuf moved both of them into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. Adrian Padilla drove in the two runners with a base hit.
Game 2 - Chico State 9, CSUDH 2
After the Toros scored three unearned runs off of Gelfand in game one, the Wildcats returned the favor by scoring the same against TyRay Gatewood (4-5).
Gatewood had stranded a runner the first two innings but ran into trouble in the third. An infield error with two out allowed the Wildcats to score the three unearned runs using a RBI single followed by a two-run double.
The Wildcats took a 4-0 lead in the fourth on a leadoff homer.
CSUDH left seven runners on base against Chico starter Hunter Haworth (2-0). Haworth threw six shutout innings surrendering three hits and a walk while punching out four.
Gatewood, meanwhile, carried the Toros to the eighth inning allowing five runs and 10 hits along with four strikeouts.
The Toros two runs came in the eighth inning. Brandon Polizzi led off with a base hit, advanced to second on a balk and scored on Conlan's single to left. Conlan would score from second on Adrian Padilla's double.
