The Chico State baseball team began their road trip with a 4-7 loss to Cal State Los Angeles in LA.

Casey Costello started the game for the Wildcats and gave up five runs, four earned over 5 1/3 innings.

Sloppy defense has haunted Chico State recently, as they have now made 17 errors in the past four games. Tonight, it was four Wildcat seniors all with errors that led to three unearned runs for the Golden Eagles.

On offense, the Wildcats continued to explore different possibilities in the leadoff position. Today it was right fielder Kyle Blakeman.

Blakeman did his job Wednesday going 2-for-3 with a triple and an RBI. He and center fielder Dustin Miller were the only two Wildcat players to have multiple hits in the game.

After trailing since the first inning, the Wildcats rallied in the top of the sixth inning to cut the deficit to 2-3, but quickly lost the momentum again after giving up a two run home run leading to a four run bottom of the sixth inning.

In the end, Blakeman’s standout performance at the plate was not enough to secure the win for the Wildcats.

Chico State (16-13, 12-11 California Collegiate Athletic Association) continues play with in doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. Friday in Los Angeles.

Austin Schreiber can be reached at [email protected] or @aschreiber94 on Twitter.