HAYWARD, Calif. – The Cal State East Bay women's softball team will be competing in the 12th annual Mizuno Tournament of Champions in Turlock on Friday. The Pioneers (11-21, 7-17 CCAA) are set to open the 26-team tournament on Friday with games against Grand Canyon, Hawaii Hilo, and Chaminade before facing Cal Baptist and Dominican to round out pool play on Saturday. The tournament will go into a single-elimination bracket format on Sunday.

In 2012, the East Bay softball team went to extra innings twice on the final day of the Mizuno Tournament of Champions earning a 3-2 win over Dixie State in nine innings before falling to No. 9 Cal State Dominguez Hills, 2-1, in eight to finish second in the Silver Bracket. With the split, the Pioneers  posted their best-ever finish in their three trips to the tournament, playing in the Silver Bracket for the first time and placing sixth overall in the 24-team event. The Pioneers are looking for similar results this weekend.

“I think that we have defined ourselves as a team and really nailed down the areas in which we need to improve,” Pioneer Head Coach Barbara Pierce said.  “We know how we play when we win and how we play when we lose.  We need to develop consistency now that we have a considerable amount of game experience under our belt as a team.”

TOURNAMENT FIELD
The Pioneers will be among 26 West Region teams playing 82 games during the three-day tournament. The field consists of all 10 CCAA teams, nine teams from the Pacific West Conference, and seven teams from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. East Bay is set to meet five teams from the Pacific West Conference in pool play.

The Pioneers will open tournament play on Friday at 11 a.m. against Grand Canyon, which comes into the tournament with a 27-10 record. The Lopes feature two hitters who rank among the top-10 Pac West Hitters for the season:  Kayla Henry (.448, third) and Claire Zampiri (.410, sixth). Grand Canyon boasts a solid pitching staff led by Kiki Sepulveda (9-1, 1.49 ERA) and Stephan Pesqueira (13-6, 1.66 ERA).

The Pioneers will take on Hawaii-Hilo at 1:15 p.m. Hawaii-Hilo is tied for the top spot with Grand Canyon in the PWC at 14-4. For the season, the Vulcans are 26-14. Earlier this year, Hawaii-Hilo swept Cal State East Bay in a doubleheader, highlighted by pitcher Vanessa Salinas (13-5) who tossed a perfect game in the opener. The Vulcans boast the fourth-best hitter in the PacWest in Rebecca Lee, who is hitting .422 with 27 runs scored, 16 doubles, and 22 RBI. Emily Greene has a team-high seven home runs. 

CSUEB will conclude Friday's action with an 8 p.m. game against Chaminade University. The Silverswords, who are 15-13 for the season, have the 10th-leading hitter in the PacWest in Ray Strom Okimoto with a .367 batting average.                                                  

On Saturday, the Pioneers will take on Cal Baptist at 2:30 p.m. The Lancers have compiled a 19-16 record going into the tournament. Pitcher Jessica Avila is 13-9 with a 2.45 ERA. Savannah Miller (.414) and Sloan McHann (.385) are the sixth and 10th ranked hitters in the conference.

East Bay will conclude pool play with an 8 p.m. game against Dominican, which enters the weekend at 5-29. The two teams have split a four-game series this year going into Saturday night's game.

The tournament will conclude on Sunday with a single-elimination round featuring five separate brackets, formed based on pool play results: Consolation, Platinum, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. The top teams from each group will play for the tournament championship in the Gold bracket. Sunday's schedule will be determined following pool play on Saturday evening and will be posted on eastbaypioneers.com and warriorathletics.com/TOC.

“This is going to be our longest weekend so far, with at least six games over three days, including three on Friday,” Pierce said. “We are going to work to improve on the areas that need to get better, but make sure we rest so that we are fresh going into the long weekend.”  

PIONEER PREVIEW
The Pioneers enter tournament play having won four of their last six games, and they're coming off a four-game split with Cal State San Bernardino over the weekend. As a team, the Pioneers are hitting 244. Taryn Thomas, who has hit safely in 22 of her last 25 games, is the team's top hitter with a .365 batting average. Thomas has four three-hit games this season, and she's the 11th-leading hitter in the CCAA with a .359 batting average.  Sara Holdridge, hitting .319 for the season, leads the Pioneers with two home runs and 16 RBI. Holdridge is tied for 15th in the CCAA with a .333 batting average.

Vika Kafoa, coming off a big weekend series against Cal State San Bernardino going 7-for-12 with two runs scored and two RBI, is hitting .275 for the season. Meli Sanchez has raised her batting average to .242, following the Cal State San Bernardino four-game series. In four games against the Coyotes, Sanchez was 7-for-18 at the plate with four runs scored, two doubles, and five RBI. Shaunna Purkey tops the Pioneers with 11 stolen bases.

Pitcher Lauren Zweigle is 7-12 with a 3.09 ERA in 23 appearances. Zweigle has 13 complete games and 100 strikeouts in 122.1 innings of work, leading the staff in virtually every pitching category. She is second among all CCAA hurlers with 72 strikeouts. Freshman hurler Kelsey Cairns, who made her collegiate debut over the weekend against Cal State San Bernardino, is 2-0 with a 4.00 ERA.                                                                                                                                                                     

Complete tournament information, including schedules, ticket prices, directions, live stats links, and results for the Mizuno Tournament of Champions are available here.

Following the tournament, Cal State East Bay will jump back into CCAA play next weekend with a four-game home series against Cal State Dominguez Hills on April 12-13.