The Wildcats came back with eight unanswered runs on Friday afternoon in Stockton, winning 10-4 against the Sonoma State Seawolves and moving one step closer to the winning the CCAA Championship.

With the ‘Cats leading 2-1 in the top of the fifth inning, starting pitcher Brad Lohse ran into trouble when the Seawolves reached on an error which ended up loaded the bases. This mishap led to three unearned runs, knocking Lohse out of the game and handing Sonoma State the lead 4-2.

Lohse was relieved by Marcos Lara who pitched three and a third innings of scoreless baseball to pick up his eighth win of the season.

Chico State came back into the game quickly, with five runs in the bottom of the fifth highlighted by a Peter Miller RBI single and a two-run double by Ryan McClellan to give the Wildcats the lead 7-4.

But the Wildcats weren’t finished, scoring three more runs in the bottom of the eighth on a two-run homer by Ryne Clark, which extended his hitting streak to eight games.

Chico State scored once more on McClellan’s third RBI of the day and team leading 27th of season. Luke Barker closed out the game with three straight putouts to pick up his 14th save of the season.

Eric Angerer was hit by two pitches on the day, increasing his career CCAA record to 57, which is tied for 14th all-time in Division II.

The Wildcats will now play the loser of the game between Cal Poly Pomona and UC San Diego Saturday at 3 p.m. in Stockton.

Emerson Keenan can be reached at [email protected] or @chancelikelance on twitter.