Box Score
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Oakland, CA -- For the fourth straight game what looked like it was going to be pitcher's duel turned sour in the late innings for the Academy of Art baseball team in the series finale against #7 Chico State. Starting pitcher Nate Gercken turned in arguably the best start so far of the year for the Urban Knights, But a tight shoulder forced him out of the game and gave the Wildcats a chance to get to the Knights' bullpen, scoring eight runs off of the relievers to get an 8-3 victory.

"We learned a lot about ourselves in this series," said head coach Brian Guinn. "When you play one of the best teams in the country it gives you a chance to see how you measure up and what it takes to make it to that level. We certainly have work to do but they are correctable mistakes and we're going to get there."

Gercken took the hill for Academy of Art in his second start of the year and picked up right where he left off against Cal State Dominguez Hills. He started mowing down the Wildcats lineup, inducing nine groundouts and four flyouts over five innings of work. He also scattered two hits and hit two batters, but had no walks and more importantly, allowed no runs to Chico State through five innings of work.

Nick Baker was putting up similar numbers on the other side against the Urban Knights offense, striking out nine of the 18 batters that he faced, including four in a row on two separate occasions. But ART U broke through in the bottom of the fifth, as Myles Babitt waited out a walk. He advanced to second on a wild pitch, and then designated hitter James Singzon also walked. After a fielders choice, freshman Joey Marchini hit a sharp single up the middle to score Singzon from second, giving Academy of Art a 1-0 lead.

In the sixth, Gercken took the hill again for his warmup tosses, but called the coach and the trainer out to consult on the mound. After the game we were informed Gercken was feeling some rightness in his throwing shoulder, and was taken out as a precaution. Ryan Donahoe took over for Gercken and worked a 1-2-3 sixth, notching two strikeouts.

"Nate's going to be fine, we just didn't want to take any chances," said Guinn. "He said he felt a little uncomfortable, and we've got a long season ahead of us. We didn't see any reason to push him any further than we had to, so we shut him down for the day, but he'll be fine."

The Wildcats, who had been riding a trend of being contained for a good part of the game before busting it open in the later innings, did that again in the seventh, scoring eight runs off of three hits, five walks, and two errors off of Samm McAlear and Ryan Ramirez (0-1) to go from a 1-0 deficit to an 8-1 lead. Austin Prott and Cody Webber each drove in two runs with a single and a double, respectively, during the inning.

But the Urban Knights didn't throw in the towel, as Jeremy Williams singled in Stefen Henderson in the seventh, and Lyle "Kalani" Brackenridge had an RBI groundout to score Marchini, who had tripled in the eighth. That was as close as they would get, however, and the Wildcats left with a series sweep.

The Knights don't play again until March 1-2 in Grand Canyon, and will be back at home on March 7 to face California Baptist.