BOX SCORE 1 | BOX SCORE 2 GAME 1:  Chico State 2, #16 Sonoma State 1 (8 innings) -- Box Score
GAME 2:  Chico State 3, #16 Sonoma State 2 -- Box Score

ROHNERT PARK -- Ali Palermo smashed her 12th home run of the season and tied the single-season record for most runs batted in, bringing in her 45th and 46th runs of the season in the series finale, but the Sonoma State softball team dropped a pair of one-run games to visiting Chico State on Senior Saturday, as the Wildcats (23-21, 20-12 CCAA) completed the four-game series sweep of the Seawolves (32-16, 19-13 CCAA), who have now lost eight of their last nine games heading into the final four games of the regular season next weekend.

Chico State earned a 2-1 win in eight innings to open the day, following it with a 3-2 victory in the nightcap, coming from behind in both games.  Sonoma State was led by the three hits off the bat of Palermo, who had a double, a home run, two RBI and two runs scored on the day, and Hayley Condon, who brought home the other run by the Seawolves on Saturday.  In the series, SSU was outscored 14-4, despite holding a 24-23 advantage in hits.  It was the walks given up by the Seawolf pitching staff that did the damage; Sonoma allowed 19 walks while Chico had just three in the four-game spread.

Sonoma State, which came into the weekend as the 16th-ranked team in the nation and the third-ranked team in the official NCAA Division II West Region rankings that were released on Wednesday, fell to fourth place in the CCAA standings, one game behind Chico State.  To clinch a spot in the 2013 CCAA Championship Tournament in two weeks, the Seawolves will need to win at least two games next weekend against Cal State Monterey Bay to secure their fourth conference tournament appearance in five years.

Humboldt State clinched the CCAA's regular season title outright with a four-game sweep of UC San Diego; the Lumberjacks have a six-game lead over the second-place Tritons with four games to go, which automatically gives HSU the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.  UC San Diego, Chico State and Sonoma State are all within one game of each other in second, third and fourth places, respectively, while Cal State Dominguez Hills is two games back of SSU in fifth place.

In the opener, Palermo doubled to open up the second inning, then later came home on a single by Condon for the 1-0 lead.  In their next at bat, the Wildcats knotted the score at 1-1 on an RBI double by Desiree' Gonzalez.  Both teams were held scoreless until the eighth inning when Chico State put the go-ahead run across the plate on a two-out RBI double by Amanda Cordeiro to score Gonzalez, who reached on an error to open the frame. 

The Seawolves put two runners on with two outs in the bottom half of the eighth inning, but Wildcat starter Kayla McConnell (7-10) got Holli Brown to strike out swinging, ending the game.  McConnell gave up six hits and two walks while striking out four.  Her counterpart, Sonoma's Samantha Lipperd (19-8), also gave up six hits, but walked five.  Palermo and Condon combined for four of the six SSU hits in the contest.

Palermo again came up big, but this time in game two, delivering a two-run home run in the fourth inning to break a scoreless tie.  Brown came up next and tripled to right center field, still with no outs, but was eventually left stranded on base.

Chico State, which was held to just one hit in the first five innings by game two starter Amanda Llerena, recorded five hits in the top of the sixth inning, scoring three runs to take the 3-2 lead.  Wildcat pitcher Alex Molina (13-6) took over from there, retiring the next six SSU batters she faced, helping Chico to the series sweep.  Llerena (13-8) suffered the loss, giving up the three runs on six hits and one walk while striking out six.

Danielle D'Eccliss went 2 for 3 in game two and five others had one hit each to total seven hits in the contest.