Box Scores
Game 1
Game 2

TURLOCK — Sometimes it's good to be lucky and not just good. The No. 8 ranked Chico State was a little bit of both on St. Patrick's Day on Thursday as they took both games of a doubleheader from Cal State Stanislaus.

After the Warriors rallied from behind twice, Cal State Stanislaus wasn't able to hold of the Wildcats in game one before losing 7-2 in 12 innings. In the nightcap, the Wildcats squeaked by with a 3-2 win in seven innings.

Chico State, now 14-3 overall and 8-2 in conference play, takes over first place in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. The Warriors, however, continued to decent in the CCAA standings and are now 14-8 overall and 8-8 in league play.

These same two teams will try and finish the four-game set with another doubleheader on Sunday in Chico. Weather permitting, the twinbill is scheduled to start at Noon at Nettleton Stadium.

Chico State has not even play a conference game at home and are now 9-3 overall on the road. Cal State Stanislaus, however, has now dropped five of its last six home games and is now 12-6 at Warrior Baseball Field.

After Chico State took a 1-0 lead in the third of the opener, Warrior starter Andrew Stueve and reliever Phil Quade shutdown the Wildcats until the 11th.

Meanwhile, the Warriors played catch-up and tied the game in the home half of the ninth to send the game into extra innings. Thomas Shull scored from third on a Ross Gonsalves squeeze to tie the game the first time. Shull had delivered a pinch-hit triple to left-centerfield with one out.

Chico State then took a 2-1 lead in the 11th, but again the Warriors even the score. Back-to-back singles that started the inning put Stanislaus in business and a sac bunt later put both runners in scoring position with one out.

Fred Atkins bunted on a pitch-out to first and beat it out for a single that scored Shull to tie the game at 2-2. Zach Cadet then tried another squeeze play trying to score pinch runner Kory Vitato from third, but Vitato retrieved safely back to third when the play was attempted at home plate.

With the bases loaded and just one out, the Warriors were seemingly in the driver's seat to finally win the close game. However, a hard grounder to short off the bat of David Contreras resulted in an rally-killing double play.

Chico State, had luck on its side, got out of the jam and put up a five-run 12th inning to eventually win the game.

In the nightcap, the Warriors used a three-run second to take a 3-1 lead. Again, the Warriors rallied from behind, scoring single runs in the second and fifth to make it 3-2. Colton Beatty, who had doubled, hustled his way to third on a fly out and scored on wild pitch in the second. In the fifth, Beatty doubled to start the inning and a Gonsalves two-out double plated Beatty for run number two.

This time, however, the Warriors didn't have much of a late-inning comeback. Chico hurler Nick Baker got another double play in the sixth to end another CSUS rally and reliever Sheldon Lechuga got three outs in the seventh to preserve the win.

Cal State Stanislaus actually ran itself out of the game in the seventh inning when Beatty was picked-off at first to end the game.

At the end of the day, Beatty wend 4-for-8 with two doubles and scored twice. Zach Cadet had three hits and Shull was 3-for-6 with a triple.

On the mound for Stanislaus, Leonard Giammanco was tagged with the loss in game one when he gave up five runs on four hits in 1 2/3 innings. Stueve threw eight innings and gave up just one run on five hits with four strikeouts, but again didn't get the run support in the no decision.

Game two starter Kory Wallace gave up three runs on eight hits in 6 1/3 innings pitched. He did strike out five and walked one.