TURLOCK — Showing the best hitting team in the CCAA that they can hit, too, the Stanislaus State Warriors out-hit — and also out-ran — Chico State to take the opener of the final series with a 9-3 victory on Friday.
The Warriors improved to 23-22 overall (14-19 CCAA) as they hope to close out the year on a positive note with a winning record. Chico State, trying to pick up a higher seed in the conference tournament, is now 30-17 overall and 20-15 CCAA. The Wildcats are in a tight three-team race for the top of the North Division.
Yes, Jordan Kron was fantastic once again on the mound. He threw a complete game and struck out eight in another outstanding start to finish the year with eight wins — the most by a Warriors since Dakota Watts won eight in 2009. Watts went on to be drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 16th round that summer.
Yes, the Warriors out-hit Chico State, the top hitting team in the CCAA, 12-10. But the biggest difference was perhaps the aggressive base-running displayed by Stan State.
Stan State stole four bases — and three of them on one play. That came in the seventh inning on a triple steal including Gino Franceschetti sliding under the tag of Wildcat catcher Cody Bistline's at home plate to make it 7-3.
The Warriors also executed the hit-and-run as well as taking the extra bag when available — like when Patrick Mulry scoring from second base on a wild pitch, following Erik Colombini, because Bistline did not hustle for the loose ball.
With the bats, the Warriors pounded out 12 hits with three doubles and a loud Colombini homerun to deep centerfield which added on two more runs to cap-off a four-run Stanislaus sixth inning — a rally started by Kyle Nixon's double off of the manual scoreboard in right-center.
Colombini ended up 2-for-4 and Nick Molina returned to his clutch-hitting form going 2-for-4 with three runs batted in. Molina doubled in the Warriors' first run in the second and drove in two more as part of that four-run rally in the sixth.
Franceschetti also went 2-for-3 as everyone in the Stan State batting order collected at least one hit.
All of this hitting was against the Chico State ace Clayton Gelfand, who entered the night third in the CCAA with a 2.19 ERA with 75 strikeouts (second most). On Friday, Gelfand allowed six runs on eight hits and was chased in the sixth inning. He struckout four and walked three Warriors.
For Chico State, which led the CCAA with a team batting average of .319, Cameron Santos, Ben Gamba and Dillon Kelley each had two hits. Kelley hit a solo line-drive homer down the left-field line in the seventh.
A turning point in the game was in the Chico fifth after Gamba and Kelley reached to leadoff the inning, going second and third. Kron, however, got a foul-out, a strikeout and a grounder to shut-down the Wildcats. That started a stretch of eight consecutive batters retired by Kron, which in terms allowed the Stanislaus offense to do damage scoring eight runs in its final four innings.
The series continues on Saturday with a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m. before the season finale on Sunday at Noon
