Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
Game 1 box | Game 2 box 

Tournament Central | Tournament Stats

TURLOCK, Calif. - Following delays due to wet weather on Saturday, the Cal State East Bay softball team posted a pair of wins on the second day of the Mizuno Tournament of Champions to finish 4-1 in pool play and advance to the Silver Bracket on Sunday. The Pioneers (22-17) topped Central Washington, 13-3, in five innings before edging Hawaii Pacific, 6-4, in the pool play finale to tie for first in Pool A and guarantee themselves a spot in the top eight of the 24-team tournament. East Bay will meet Dixie State in the Silver Bracket semifinal at 12 p.m. on Sunday. 

Jamie Yaller finished the day with six RBI and three runs, going 4-for-5 at the plate to lead the Pioneers. Yaller added a homerun and two walks, while Talia Ferrari was impressive both in the circle and at the plate for East Bay. The senior hurler and right fielder went 3-for-6 on teh day, scoring three runs and driving in another three, hitting East Bay's only other homerun and walking once. Yaller also picked up both wins to improve to 9-3 on the year, tossing 8.2 innings and allowing just three runs on 10 hits to post a 1.62 earned run average on Saturday.

Taryn Thomas helped out the offense with three runs and an RBI, while Devon Mercurio, Sara Holdridge and Emily Montanez all chipped in with two RBI, with Mercurio and Montanez also scoring twice on the day. Taylor Neumann and Breezy Johnson also added two runs apiece. 

The Pioneers scored early and often in the first game of the day, putting up an eight spot on nine hits in the top of the first inning thanks in part to a two-run homer from Ferrari and RBI hits from Montanez, Hamor and Holdridge. Ferrari then took an 8-0 lead into the circle, allowing just three earned runs on six hits and no walks in a five-inning, complete game victory. 

Five Pioneers scored twice and all but two players posted at least one run in the victory over the Wildcats. East Bay also saw Yaller, Ferrari, Montanez and Holdridge each drive in multiple runs in the win. 

In the night cap, the Pioneers took a 4-1 lead through three innings, with Yaller driving in all four runs thanks to an RBI single in the first and a three-run homer to left in the top of the third. 

The three-run lead was short-lived, however, as the Sea Warriors started the bottom of the fourth with a pair of triples and a double to score a pair and cut the lead to just one. Ferrari came on with one out, inheriting a runner on second, who would come around to score to tie the game 4-4 before Ferrari sat the final two batters down swinging to end the inning. 

Tied 4-4, the Pioneers took advantage of two errors and a walk in the top of the seventh inning to bring in the eventual game-winning run on an RBI single from Montanez and the insurance run on an error by the right fielder, to take a 6-4 lead. Though Hawaii Pacific got one hit off Ferrari in the bottom of the seventh, she finished off the game to pick up her second win of the day. 

Thanks to the pair of victories on the final day of pool play, the Pioneers will move on to the Silver Bracket for the first time in their three-year history in the Tournament of Champions. East Bay has never finished better than 18th in the tournament. The Pioneers have always played well on Sunday at the Tournament of Champions, claiming three wins on the final day in the last two years at the tournament.

The other Silver Bracket semifinal will feature Hawaii Pacific and either Chaminade or Cal State Dominguez Hills (to be determined following a rescheduled 8 a.m. matchup between Chaminade and Western Washington). Cal State East Bay will kick off the single-elimination Silver Bracket against Dixie State on Sunday at 12 p.m. at Pedretti Sports Complex in Turlock. The winner between the Pioneers and Red Storm will meet the other semifinal winner for the Silver Bracket championship and fifth place in the tournament at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday.