KEIZER, Ore. – The Chico State baseball team is full of tough looking ’Cats. Unruly hair and intimidating tattoos dot the dugout. Some of the guys were just born looking a bit rough around the edges. But you won’t find a tougher guy in that dugout than the soft-spoken baby-faced assassin Abel Alcantar, at least as far as his teammates and Head Coach Dave Taylor are concerned.

Alcantar got the rare opportunity to step out of the dugout Thursday, and the 6-foot (on a very good day), 195-pounder delivered the go-ahead pinch-hit single with two down in the eighth inning. That hit helped lift Chico State to a 7-6 victory against host Western Oregon in the opening round of the NCAA Championship Tournament West Regional at Volcano Stadium in Keizer, Ore.

“We talked as a team yesterday about the keys to having success here in the regional and the first thing is toughness,” said Taylor. “There are four good teams here and the one that moves on is going to be the one that’s the toughest.”

“We needed a guy to come up in a tough situation and take a tough at-bat and Abel is that guy for us. He has been for the last month. I’m just glad I finally figured that out a few weeks back before it was too late.”

The at-bat was just the 19th of the season for the junior forced to use a medical redshirt last season. He’s made those scant opportunities count, however. Even his three-run double in the Rally and Raley against Sonoma State couldn’t top this moment. After swinging and missing at a breaking pitch, Alcantar slashed the second pitch he saw into right-center field, driving in Cody Foster from third.

“I know my situation and role,” said Alcantar. “Today it was to make sure I get the next guy up. I’m glad it went the way it did.”

He now has four hits and five RBI in his last seven at-bats.

“When I’m in the dugout I feel like I am in the game,” said Alcantar when asked about the challenges of waiting for hours, and sometimes even games, between opportunities. “When the situation comes up for me to hit I’m already focused. I’ve already studied a hundred at-bats and I’m ready to go.”

Ironically, it was defensive replacement Pierson Jeremiah who kept the inning alive long enough to get Alcantar to the plate. Jeremiah entered in the seventh with the Wildcats leading 5-2. But that edge evaporated in the seventh when David Amberson barely beat out a double-play ball and the next Wolves hitter, Matt Nylen, nailed a 3-run game-tying homer.

Foster answered with a little speed of his own in the eighth, beating out a one-out infield single. Jeremiah, hitless in his previous 17 at-bats, hit the first pitch he saw into left-center field for a single that moved Foster over to third.

Alcantar followed with his hit and after taking second on the throw and popping up quickly from his slide, pounded his chest and saluted his teammates in a passionate moment of celebration.

It was one of many causes for celebration for the Wildcats, who pounded Western Oregon starter Grady Wood for season-highs of five runs and 11 hits in six innings, snapping his streak of 20 straight starts ending in a win. Ironically, it was the Wildcats who last beat Wood last March in Monmouth, Ore.

“We were pretty tense early,” admitted Western Oregon Head Coach Jeremiah Robbins. “Especially Grady on the mound. That was as tense as I’ve seen him.”

The Wildcats’ four runs in the sixth were the most Wood has allowed in any game this season and matched the most since the Wildcats scored four against him in five-and-two-thirds last season. It was also the crooked number that the ’Cats may have been questioning would ever come.

Chico State stranded nine runners through the first four frames and went a staggering 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position during that time. Myles Dempsey’s RBI-single in the third that tied the game 1-1 was the lone exception.

The big breakthrough finally came after Ben Manlove’s infield single and Ian McKay’s two-out hit. Cody Foster strolled to the plate having failed to get a sacrifice bunt down in the first and striking out with the bases loaded and one out in the fourth.

He came though this time with a slicing single to right that drove in Manlove, the go-ahead run. 

“I didn’t get the job done in my first two at-bats, but I knew my teammates had faith in me to come back and handle business when the time came,” said Foster. “It was a good feeling to help contribute.”

Perhaps the only person more in need of redemption was the next man up, Blake Gibbs, who got his as well. After striking out with two men on in the third and the bases loaded to end the fourth, the Wildcats’ RBI leader lined a two-run single down the left field line to build the lead to 4-1.

Dempsey’s second RBI-single stretched Chico State’s advantage to 5-1, but the Wolves (40-10) were far from through. In fact, they scored in each of the next three innings, cutting the lead to 5-2 in the bottom of the sixth, tying it with the three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh, and following the Wildcats’ two-run eighth, Kyle Blackwell clobbered his second solo home run of the day to make it 7-6.

Red-hot Wildcats closer Mike Botelho stopped that streak in the ninth. He struck out the first two hitters he faced and got Nylen on a fly ball to deep right field for his 13th save of the season. That’s the seventh most in school history and just two off the record.

It also nailed down the Wildcats’ 53rd win in 64 games in the all-time series against Western Oregon. Chico State has now won all four of their postseason meetings as well.

Chico State starter Kagen Hopkins, who drew high praise from Western Oregon’s Robbins following the game, improved to 8-3 with the win. He gave up five runs on eight hits in seven innings while striking out four without walking a batter. Hopkins also improved to 4-0 in five starts against teams that advanced to the postseason this season.

Sean Martin pitched the eighth, allowing only Blackwell’s home run after retiring the first two batters on three pitches.

Foster finished with a game-high three hits, while TJ Yasuhara, McKay, Dempsey, and Manlove managed two hits apiece in the 16-hit attack that helped the Wildcats improve to 38-16 on the season.

They’ll try to stay hot in Friday night’s second-round game against Dixie State, a 7-3 winner against UC San Diego in Thursday’s first game. The winner will advance to the title game where they’ll have two chances to win, beginning Saturday night at 5, and advance to the Division II College World Series. The Red Storm are 33-18 overall.

UC San Diego and Western Oregon will play in an elimination game tomorrow afternoon at 1.

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