Box Score: Chico State 7, Coyotes 2
LA JOLLA –
Edwin Mendoza's two-run home run highlighted the Coyotes' day as they were dealt a 7-2 loss to Chico State in the CCAA Tournament opener Thursday afternoon at Triton Ballpark.
The Coyotes, now 27-19, will play at 11 a.m. Friday in a loser-out contest against Sonoma State, which lost 6-0 to top-seed UC San Diego on Thursday night.
Should the Coyotes win that contest, they'll come back to play at 7 p.m. against UC San Diego or Chico State.
“We played OK, but we kicked the ball around today and characteristically, that's not what we've done all season,'' Coyotes coach
Don Parnell said. “And you have to give their pitcher credit. He did a nice job of mixing up pitches and we've had some difficulties when we face that type of pitcher. When we expected a fastball, he mixed up breaking pitches, and when we expected him to go off-speed, he got the fastball past us.''
Chico State (37-14) scored got on the board in the third when T.J. Yasuhara, who singled, advanced to second on a balk. Then, Coyotes starter RHP
Casey McCarthy threw a wild pitch that bounced off the backstop. Catcher
Paul Eshleman quickly retrieved the ball and attempted to throw out the Chico runner at third, but the ball was wide right and it sailed into left for the run.
Three batters later, Blake Gibbs' two-out double scored Cody Foster, who doubled and the Wildcats led 2-0.
In the sixth, Chico State scored two runs on three hits. Gibbs led off with a single and scored on Matt Anderson's single to right. Two batters later and the bases loaded, McCarthy walked in Ben Manlove.
In the seventh, the Coyotes'
Matt Haney led off with a walk and Mendoza came up and lifted a shot that easily cleared the left-field wall and the Coyotes trailed 4-2. It was his 11th homer this season -- tops in the CCAA.
But Chico answered with three runs in the seventh, capped by Cody McKay's two-out, two-run single.
McCarthy threw 6.1 innings and gave up nine hits, seven runs – five earned. He had five strikeouts with four walks.
Wildcats' starter Kagan Hopkins earned the win in six innings. He had five strikeouts with three walks and gave up five hits.
Ethan Chapman and Eshleman each had two hits, while Newell accounted for the other hit.
Gibbs had three hits for the Wildcats.
