Senior pitcher Casey Costello came out on top in a pitchers duel Friday as the Wildcats defeated Stanislaus State 1-0. Costello was able to keep the Warriors quiet for seven innings, limiting them to just three hits while striking out four.
Costello is now 2-0 on the season, after setting the Chico State single season record of 12-0 last year. He holds an ERA of 0.95, and is looking as sharp as ever out there on the mound.
When asked about his performance, Costello said, “My fastball was working good today. I was getting ahead on a lot of batters and I had my defense behind me to help. Casey Henderson and Cam Santos both made some great plays for me.”
The Wildcats bats were relatively quiet for most of the night, but they were able to manufacture a run when it mattered most.
In the top of the seventh inning, Nick Tingirides pinch hit and singled to lead off the inning. Trevor Steinman followed with a huge sacrifice bunt, before Tingrides moved to third on a balk from the pitcher. This balk proved crucial, as catcher RJ Hassey was then able to to score Tingrides with a groundout to second base.
This put the Wildcats up 1-0, but the bottom half of the seventh was no easy task.
After a leadoff double from Stanislaus State to start the inning, Costello was able to work around some trouble and keep the Wildcats in the lead after catching the runner attempting to steal home.
“The play at the plate gave us the momentum for the rest of the game. Definitely fired up Dan Beavers to go in the eighth and ninth innings and take care of it,” Costello said.
Accordingly, Dan Beavers came in to pitch the eighth and ninth innings, and worked around some late hits to earn his third save of the season. He finished with three strikouts in his two innings of work.
The Wildcats and Warriors will continue play with three more games this weekend. They play at noon Saturday in Turlock, before returning home Sunday for a double-header beginning at 1 p.m.
Austin Schreiber can be reached at [email protected] or @aschreiber94 on Twitter.
