Box Score HAYWARD, Calif. – The Cal State East Bay baseball team celebrated Opening Day of the 2013 season with a thrilling walk-off victory, 5-4, over visiting Central Washington (0-1). The Pioneers (1-0) scored one in the eighth and two in the ninth to complete to comeback, earning a win for senior Zachary Wong, who pitched 1.2 innings of scoreless relief. East Bay overcame six errors thanks to excellent pitching and a 15-hit explosion by the offense.

The Pioneers entered the ninth inning down a run against the CWU closer, hard-throwing right-hander Davis Engels. Charlie Sharrer got things started off by ripping a one-out double to the left-center gap. After Evan Miravalles reached on an infield hit, Jordan Wilder tied the game with an opposite field single. With the winning run on third, Naea Kalehuawehe fell behind 1-2 in the count, then hit a high chopper to the left side. With the infield in, Wildcat shortstop Justin Weigel had no play on the ball and Miravalles scored to give East Bay the win.

The Pioneers' comeback took starting pitcher Ben O'Bryan off the hook, who was outstanding in his first start of the year, but left the game trailing 3-2 in the seventh inning. The senior hurler tossed 6.2 innings, allowing three earned runs on four hits. He displayed impressive command, mixing a good slider with a high-80's fastball and rarely falling behind hitters. O'Bryan struck out eight Wildcats without issuing a single walk.

He was relieved by Taylor Kruger,  making his first appearance as a Pioneer. The junior right-hander allowed two hits and a walk, striking out one, in two-thirds of an inning. Wong came in with one out in the eighth got a quick double play, ultimately recording the final five outs for East Bay without surrendering a hit.

Senior outfielder Andrew Rodriguez helped start the season off strong for the Pioneers in his first game in red and black. Leading off the first inning, Rodriguez drilled a line-drive home run over the left field wall to give East Bay a 1-0 advantage.

The Pioneers made it 2-0 in the third inning when Wilder laced a hanging curveball from CWU starter Skye Adams to left field for an RBI single. The senior, an All-CCAA selection last year, was 2-for-5 with a pair of RBI on the day.

Central Washington answered back in the top of the fourth inning. After Weigel reached on an error, Ethan Sterkel chopped a ball towards third that went under the glove of Roger Luna. Pioneer shortstop Zac Chuvala made a nifty heads-up play to field the ball in the hole and get it back to Luna, who tagged out Weigel trying to advance to third. The Wildcats followed with a double and a single to tie the game 2-2, but then Luna got some redemption with two nice plays on hot shots to get out of the fourth without further damage.

The game remained tied until the seventh, with the Pioneers putting lots of runners on base but struggling to bring them home. After a lead-off single and a sacrifice, CWU's Marc Garza muscled a singe into left-center to plate the go-ahead run. The Pioneers brought in Kruger to close out the inning, but not before Weigal laced an 0-2 curveball to left to make it 4-2 Wildcats.

The Pioneers left two runners on base in the seventh, and then loaded the bases with one out in the eighth on three consecutive singles. Luna plated a run with an RBI ground out, making it 4-3, but that's all East Bay would get as they left the bases loaded.

Rodriguez reached base four times for East Bay out of the lead-off spot (Ironically, his only out came leading off the ninth inning). He, Miravalles, Wilder, Kalehuawehe, and David Castillo each posted two hits on Opening Day. In total, nine different Pioneers had a hit in the game.

East Bay is back in action tomorrow in the second game of this four-game series against the Wildcats. The projected starters are Stuart Fewel for CWU and senior right-hander Michael Pope for the Pioneers. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Pioneer Field.