Chico State baseball hosted the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos at Nettleton Stadium this Saturday. In a game that had serious tournament implications for both teams, Chico State emerged with the 4-1 victory.

The win moved Chico’s overall record to 21-17 and 17-16 in the Califonia Collegiate Athletic Association. More importantly, the win allowed Chico to overtake both Pomona and Sonoma State in the standings.

They now hold the fifth spot in the standings and have the end of season tournament in sight. With nine games remaining in the season, the Wildcats hold their tournament hopes in their own hands.

“This was a big win,” said assistant coach Dillion Kelley, “If we come out and play like this the rest of our season, we’ll be a dangerous team in the tournament.”

The story of the day was the pitcher-catcher tandem of Grant Larson and Myles Moran. Larson pitched a complete game that only featured four hits, while Moran threw out two runners and went 3-for-4 hitting with an RBI and a score of his own.

The complete game marked Larson’s third of the season and moved his overall record to 5-3.

A wild pitch at the start of the first inning from Larson lead to the Broncos batting in the runner and taking their first and only lead of the game.

However, Moran was able to even the score in the bottom of the second inning after getting driven in by a JT Navaro double. He followed it up in the third inning with an RBI single to center field that gave Chico their first lead.

Stellar pitching from Larson through the next four innings would see him retire 13 batters straight. He finished with nine total strikeouts on the day and was vital in what was a rough offensive showing from the ‘Cats’.

They left 14 runners stranded on base throughout the course of the game before finally securing a couple of insurance runs in the seventh and eighth innings.

The Wildcats will look to keep the momentum rolling as they play a make-up game this Tuesday against Cal State East Bay before returning home to host Sonoma on Friday.

The four-game series against the Seawolves will have major tournament implications for both teams involved and should make for a great competitive series. The first game will kick off Friday night at 6 p.m. at Nettleton Stadium, those unable to attend can still watch through the Chico State Athletics website.

Noah Andrews can be reached at [email protected] or @SPORTSFROMNOAH on Twitter.