May 17, 2008
-- See video of the game at the bottom of the page --
For most of Saturday the Wildcats couldn't score. They could hit and get runners into scoring position, but the runs never came.
With the end of the season in sight, the Wildcats finally came through, advancing to the West Regional championship game in a 3-2 win.
After an early morning 13-2 thrashing at the hands of the Sonoma State Seawolves, the Wildcats went into the late afternoon elimination game against UC San Diego scuffling. Luckily so were the Tritons.
After trailing 2-0 early in the game, the Wildcats made a ferocious late-inning comeback scoring two runs in the seventh and adding another in the eighth to win 3-2.
"It was 2-0 but it felt like 8-0," head coach Dave Taylor said. "We hung around and when you hang around you have a good chance."
Before the Wildcats took the lead, the offense struggled to score any runs.
"We were struggling with our offense game plan, which for May 17 is real surprising," Taylor said. "We were not concentrating real hard with guys in scoring position, but I give our guys credit for battling."
The Wildcats fought through lots of missed opportunities in its early morning loss and afternoon win. Chico State stranded 12 runners in the loss to Sonoma State and another nine in its win against UC San Diego.
What finally sparked the Wildcats were uncharacteristic UC San Diego mistakes. After leading the nation in fielding percentage, the Tritons committed five errors, three of which came during one play in the seventh inning.
With center fielder Shane Farmer at first, Kyle Eveland hit a hard groundball to second, where Tritons misplayed it, allowing the ball into centerfield. With a bobble and a bad throw home, a run scored on three errors.
Taking the momentum into the eighth, Bret Ringer stepped to the plate and delivered a line drive into deep right-center field, scoring Josh Meagher from first.
"I was just trying to get the runner over and it found the gap," Ringer said.
The late-inning heroics were given a chance by a solid pitching staff effort. Starting pitcher Joel Garcia threw well, going five and 2/3 innings and allowing both runs on six hits.
In relief Kyle Woodruff shut down the Triton bats, letting only one hit in three and 1/3 innings.
"I'm just a lot more confident right now," Woodruff said. "Confidence is a big thing for me."
Confidence is something the Wildcats will need a lot more of come Sunday, the championship round. In order to advance to the College World Series, the Wildcats will need to win twice against the 49-13 Sonoma State Seawolves.
"We've done it before," Woodruff said, alluding to earlier in the season when the Wildcats swept a doubleheader against Sonoma State. "I think we have a pretty good shot."
The first game starts at noon.
Connor Ramey can be reached at cramey@theorion.com
Related links Saturday morning box scores Baseball team stay in winners bracket, beats UC San Diego Baseball team open west regional with a win
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