CHICO – The Warriors baseball team was swept in a four game series against the conference-leading Chico State Wildcats this weekend.
Game 1 on Friday was the closest game of the series for the Warriors. An eighth inning double by senior third baseman Tynan Pedretti scored senior center fielder Craig Beevers to tie the Wildcats.
The tie was quickly broken in the bottom of the eighth with a solo home run by senior DH Jon Peters. The Wildcats scored two more insurance runs in the inning to seal the 6-3 victory.
Junior starting pitcher Michael York went six innings, giving up three runs and seven hits with four strikeouts.
“We had good energy on Friday, but still made some mistakes that hurt us,” Head Coach Kenneth Leonesio said.  “If you are going to beat a good team you have to play at a high level and clean baseball.  We just didn’t do that this weekend.”
Saturday’s doubleheader saw more losses for the Warriors.
The first game of the day was a 20-5 blowout win for the Wildcats. Chico’s senior starter Troy Neiman gave up only one run and two hits in five innings en route to the win.
Game 2 of the day and the third of the series saw the Warriors lose again by a considerable margin.
The Wildcats scored three runs in the first inning and four runs in the second inning and coasted to an 8-1 win.
Redshirt senior Andrew Graham made his anticipated first start on the mound since his historic no-hitter a week before. He was, however, not able to duplicate his results from his last start, giving up eight runs in his complete game effort.
Wildcats senior starting pitcher Mike Botelho also pitched a complete game, giving up only one run on eight hits in his winning performance.
Sunday’s series finale again had Chico jump to an early lead. The Wildcats four run second inning gave them an early lead and they never looked back.
“Chico is good in all aspects of the game,” Leonesio said.  “They have really good pitching, they hit and play defense and are well prepared.
Junior right fielder Eric Angerer led Chico with three RBIs and senior second baseman Myles Dempsey was 3-4 with one RBI and two runs scored.
Despite 14 hits for the Warriors, they only managed to score five runs in the 9-5 loss. Redshirt junior catcher Andrew Graves contributed three RBIs for the Warriors while going 3-4 from the plate.
The series sweep lands the Warriors with a 7-23 overall record and a 4-19 record in conference play.
“It’s obviously tough when you are having the year we are having,” Leonesio said.  “But we do find out a lot about our players and what we need to do moving forward.”
The Warriors will start a four game home series against Cal Poly Pomona on April 5.