HAYWARD, Calif. — The Pioneer baseball team is tied for fourth place in the CCAA after splitting a pair of doubleheaders with Sonoma State, ranked 13th in the nation last week. Cal State East Bay has an impressive 11-2 record at home, which is where the team will play its next eight conference games. This weekend, the Pioneers welcome in Cal State San Bernardino for a four-game series. The opener is scheduled for Friday at 2 p.m. at Pioneer Field. Saturday's doubleheader and Sunday's single game are both set for 11 a.m. starts.

WEEKEND RECAP
East Bay picked up a pair of wins in an extremely well-pitched series against the Seawolves. The weekend got off to a rough start, as the Pioneers fell behind 6-0 in Friday's first game in Rohnert Park. When SSU starter Harmen Sidhu (7.0 IP, 0 ER, 11 K) finally exited the game, the Pioneers rattled off an incredible scoring rally. CSUEB sent 13 batters to the plate and scored eight unearned runs in the eighth inning. Billy Wardell pitched a scoreless seventh to earn his first career win, and Matt Fontaine shut out the Seawolves in the final two frames to pick up his first save.

The Pioneers received outstanding pitching, but didn't quite have the same luck in the second game at Seawolf Diamond, which was scheduled for seven innings. Michael Pope (7.0 IP, 1 ER) and Austin Wiggins (5.1 IP, 0 ER) both dominated, and SSU led 1-0 heading to the sixth. The Pioneers took a 2-1 lead in the top of the last inning, but couldn't hold it, as Sonoma scored a run in the seventh and a run in the eighth to pick up the 3-2 extra-inning win and even the series.

The teams were in Hayward the following day, and what resulted was a pair of very low-scoring games. In the first one, the Pioneers scored a run in the third on a ground out and another in the fourth on a sac fly, and it turned out that was enough. Reigning CCAA and West Region Pitcher of the Week Sean Becker held the Seawolves scoreless through eight innings to earn his third victory in the 2-0 win.

The Pioneers had a chance to win the series in the final game, but like the previous afternoon, they couldn't hang onto a one-run lead late in the game.  For the fourth time, the starting pitchers were stellar; Nick Hudson (6.1 IP, 1 ER) and Glenn Wallace (8.0 IP, 0 ER) matched zeroes early, and the Pioneer right-hander actually left with a lead. But Sonoma was able to add two runs on a pair of sac flies in the eighth inning to capture the 3-2 victory and salvage a split in the series.

MOVING UP THE RANKS
Thanks to the 2-2 weekend, the Pioneers were ranked as a top-10 team in the West Region by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) for the first time since rejoining NCAA Division II four years ago. East Bay is in the No. 9 spot with 12 vote points, up two slots from last week when they were just outside the top-10.

Rank	School (1st place votes)	2013 Record	Vote Points	Last Week's Rank
1.	Chico State (6)	11-1	60 pts	1st
2.	Dixie State	9-1	54 pts	2nd
3.	Cal State Monterey Bay	13-6	39 pts	4th
4.	Sonoma State	10-4	37 pts	3rd
5.	Cal State LA	11-8	35 pts	6th
t-6.	Cal Poly Pomona	12-7	29 pts	5th
t-6.	UC San Diego	11-8	29 pts	7th
8.	Hawaii Pacific	11-3	22 pts	9th
9.	Cal State East Bay	13-6	12 pts	RV
10	Grand Canyon	9-4	8 pts	10th

Also receiving votes: Cal State San Bernardino (9-7), 2 pts.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Bryson Nakamura (OF, Sr.) — The senior from Hawaii made his first three starts of the season over the weekend and made a big impression. On Friday, Nakamura had two hits and scored two runs in the first game, then posted another two-hit game, including a game-tying single, in the second game. He led the team with six hits in the series, batted .500, and also stole a base. In nine games this season, Nakamura is hitting .444.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Sean Becker (RHP, Jr.) — All four East Bay starters pitched well in the series, and Fontaine was brilliant in the closer role, earning two saves in 3.0 scoreless innings. But for the second straight week, Becker was the Pioneers' standout as he extended his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 17. He pounded the strike zone, scattering seven hits without walking a batter and throwing 78 of his 110 pitches for strikes (71 percent). For the season, he has 20 strikeouts and just three walks in a team-high 32.0 innings.

OWNING THE BASE PATHS
Offensively, the Pioneers have two of the top five base stealers in the conference. Andrew Rodriguez (7-for-8 in steals) and Jordan Wilder (6-for-8) rank third and fifth in the CCAA in total swipes, respectively.

On defense, East Bay has been one of the most difficult teams in the conference to run against. Catchers David Castillo, Chris Porter, and Kyle Zozaya have combined to allow 13 stolen bases in 19 games, second-fewest in the CCAA. Even more impressively, they have thrown out 53.6 percent of potential base stealers, which ranks them third in the conference and makes them one of four teams to gun down more than half of would-be base stealers.

MOUND MAESTROS
The Pioneer hurlers went toe to toe with Sonoma State's vaunted pitchers last weekend, and about one-third of the way through the season, East Bay has established itself as one of the CCAA's top staffs. They rank second in team ERA (2.02) and strikeouts (124) and third in opponents' batting average (.206). Their collective strikeout-to-walk ratio is better than 2:1, and they allowed just seven earned runs in four games against the Seawolves.

Starters Becker (3-1, 1.69 ERA, 20 K), Fontaine (1-1, 1.17 ERA, 20 K, 2 SV), Pope (4-0, 2.48 ERA, 26) and Ben O'Bryan (2-1, 3.48 ERA, 21 K) all rank in the conference's top-20 in ERA and strikeouts. The rest of the staff has combined to allow seven earned runs in 45.2 innings. This East Bay squad appears to have the arms to compete with anyone in the extremely competitive CCAA.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT
A senior transfer from Southern Virginia, Alexander went 2-for-4 in each of the Pioneer victories this past weekend. He had a double, and triple, and two RBI in Friday's game. The Oakley native has been one of East Bay's best hitters so far this season. Batting second for the most part, he leads the conference with three triples and paces the team with two home runs. Alexander ranks second on the Pioneers in total bases (35), extra base hits (7), and slugging (.525), third in RBI (12), runs (13), and walks (9), and fourth in on-base percentage (.384). He has had multiple hits in five of his last eight games.

SCOUTING SAN BERNARDINO
The Coyotes dropped three out of four to Cal State Dominguez Hills last weekend, though all four games were tight. They rank fourth in the CCAA in batting average (.291), on-base percentage (.373), and team ERA (3.28), and fifth in opponent's batting average (.264), matching up pretty closely with the Pioneers. They've also blasted 10 home runs as a team to lead the conference.

CSUSB has four hitters batting over .340 and six hitters getting on base at a .420 clip or better. Junior Richard Mount leads the Coyotes with a .394 batting avg, .500 obp, and seven extra base hits. Fellow junior Remington Miller is batting .367 and leads the teams with 22 hits and 12 RBI. Left-hander Kerry Kelley (2-1, 3.27 ERA) and right-hander Ken Kissell (1-2, 3.08 ERA) have been San Bernardino's top two starting pitchers this season. The Pioneers are 3-9 against the Coyotes since joining the CCAA, having lost three out of four each of the last three years.