CHICO, Calif. ? The 9th-ranked UC San Diego baseball team dropped its first game of the California Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament to 11th-ranked Chico State 7-4 on Thursday night at Nettleton Stadium. The Tritons will face Cal State Stanislaus in an elimination game at 11:00 a.m. on Friday. The Widcats face Sonoma State, with the winner advancing to the CCAA Championship on Saturday. With the loss, the Tritons drop to 41-15, while the Wildcats improve to 38-13.
It was the first time in the last three CCAA Tournament appearances that the Tritons lost to the tournament host.
Kirby St. John suffered his first loss of the year, dropping to 8-1 on the season.
In the Chico half of the fourth, Jimmy Dodos led off with a double and advanced to third on a wild pitch. After a walk to put runners on the corners, Josh Meagher hit into a fielders choice and Dodos scored for the 1-0 Wildcats lead. The Tritons turned a double play on the next batter and kept the score at 1-0 Chico.
Matt Cantele led off the UCSD fourth with a walk and advanced to second on Evan Kehoe's sac bunt. With two outs, Imeson singled through the right side and Cantele came around to score to tie the game at 1-1, just beating the throw from the right fielder.
Michael Benton led off the UCSD fifth with a walk and advanced to second on Tony Bonelli's sac bunt. With two outs, Albitz reached on an error to put runners on the corners but CSUC pitcher Mickartz got a strikeout to keep the score tied at 1-1 through five frames.
CSUC put the first two runners on base in the sixth by way of a walk and UCSD error. The next Wildcats batter singled which would have loaded the bases but another UCSD error allowed the go-ahead run to score. Ringer followed with a sac fly to right giving the Wildcats a 3-1 lead. Meagher followed with an RBI single, Chico's third run of the inning to lead 4-1.
In the UCSD sixth, Imeson walked and stole second with two outs. With Tim Mort batting, Imeson would come around to score on a missed pick off attempt and UCSD scored an unearned run to cut the Wildcat lead down to 4-2.
CSUC added a run in the seventh on a sac fly RBI to lead 5-2.
Benton led off the bottom half of the seventh with a solo homerun to left to make the score 5-3.
Cantele led off the UCSD eighth with a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Evan Kehoe singled up the middle for an RBI and UCSD was within 5-4.
With the bases loaded and one out in the Chico ninth, Eveland singled to center for an RBI. The Wildcats added another run on a two-out single to lead 7-4.
