CHICO — The Stanislaus State baseball team finally opened CCAA play after the current storm passed through Northern California as the Warriors beat 21st ranked Chico State, 14-11, in a slugfest in game one of Sunday's rescheduled doubleheader at Nettleton Stadium.
Then, in a pitching duel of a nightcap, Stan State scored twice in the ninth to post a 2-0 win for the doubleheader sweep.
The wins were the Warriors' second and third against a ranked team in a little over a week. Stan State beat No. 7 Azusa Pacific last Saturday behind
Rylan Tinsley's successful first collegiate start. Stanislaus State has now won four straight games to improve to 6-2 overall.
The Warriors' 14 runs against Chico State were the most scored against the Wildcats in Chico since March 3, 2009.
In game one Sunday,
Grant Bunker homered and drove in five runs and
Alexis Paz also went 3-for-4 to star for the Stan State offense. Then, for the second weekend, Tinsley completely shut-down a ranked team to post another win.
After the series shifted its start to Chico due to weather and wet fields, the teams threw offensive bunches right from the start. It was 9-7 in favor of the Wildcats by the time the third inning ended. By the time the five innings were completed — and each team used up two pitchers — it was 11-8 Chico.
Then, Stanislaus State put up a six-spot in the sixth.
Walks and wild pitches were key to the inning, where the Warriors only needed three hits to plate those six runs.
Brandon De La Guardia capped the rally with a three-run double after
Michael Wyatt walked to load the bases. Chico State had also elected to intentionally walk Paz earlier in the inning.
With a 14-11 lead, Tinsley took the mound and completely shut-down Chico State. The rookie lefty threw five hitless innings and struck out five for another win. He did walk three batters but was able to leave those runners on base.
Bunker doubled in two runs in the first and belted a three-run homer in the second inning for his five-RBI game.
Chase Wheatcroft got the start on the mound in game two and pitched 7 1/3 shutout innings. He gave up five hits and struck out three before getting into trouble in the eighth. Chico State had a runner at third with one out, but
Brandon Scott came in and got a strikeout and a groundout to end the inning.
After loading the bases in the top of the ninth, a Bunker sac fly scored Wyatt, then an error scored De La Guardia to make it 2-0.
Scott then got a pop-up and struck out two more Wildcats to end the game. Scott got the win and struck out three in 1 2/3 innings.
