HAYWARD, Calif. — After a bye week, the Cal State East Bay baseball team is back in action and back on the road to Southern California for a four-game series with Cal State L.A. This will be an extremely important set of games for both the fourth-place Pioneers and second-place Golden Eagles, who are currently ranked No. 25 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball. The series opens under the lights in Los Angeles with a 6 p.m. game on Friday night. The teams will then play a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, followed by the finale on Sunday at 11 a.m.

WEEKLY RECAP
The Pioneers played their first true road series of the year two weeks ago against UC San Diego. The team did a bit of a Jeckyl-and-Hyde routine over the course of three days, but they ultimately came home with a 2-2 split, keeping themselves in good shape in the conference standings.

On Thursday, the East Bay offense roughed up Triton ace Ryan Goodbrand for seven runs en route to a huge 10-7 victory in the opener. The seniors took care of business for the Pioneers: David Castillo had four hits, Andrew Rodriguez added three, Kyle Zozaya knocked in three runs, and Matt Fontaine closed out the game on the hill, striking out five in four innings for his third save.

After racking up 16 hits the previous night, the East Bay bats went quiet on Friday, scoring just two total runs on eight hits in the doubleheader. Despite an excellent pitching performance by Sean Becker and a very good one by Michael Pope, the Pioneers suffered a pair of narrow losses, 3-2 and 3-0.

They brought the sticks back with them on Saturday, matching a season high with 19 hits and cruising to an 11-3 victory. Former Triton Nick Hudson stepped up big for the Pioneers against his former team, tossing seven innings to earn his second win of the year. Charlie Sharrer and Naea Kalehuawehe led the team offensively, each going 4-for-5.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
David Castillo (C, Sr.) – Several players put up big numbers in La Jolla, led by Castillo, who went batted .545 in three starts behind the dish. He posted his second four-hit game of the season in the opener, driving in a run and scoring two. He added two hits and an RBI on Sunday to finish 6-for-9 in the two Pioneer victories. Castillo is batting .322 in his senior season, which ranks among the top-30 hitters in the CCAA

PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Nick Hudson (RHP, Jr.) – Hudson turned in his best performance as a Pioneer, helping the East Bay secure an important win over UCSD. He scattered five hits, allowed just one run, and matched a season high with six strikeouts. The junior from Benicia also matched his longest outing of the season with seven solid frames.

CCAA STANDINGS
The top four teams in the conference earn a berth in the CCAA tournament, which will be held in Stockton this year. The Pioneers have four series remaining in their 40-game conference schedule.

Rank	School	CCAA Record	Pct.	Overall Record
1.	#3 Chico State	20-4	.833	27-5
2.	#25 Cal State L.A	18-6	.750	21-13
3.	#21 Cal State Monterey Bay	16-8	.667	24-10
4.	Cal State East Bay	14-10	.583	24-10
5.	Sonoma State	13-11	.542	21-13
6.	Cal Poly Pomona	15-13	.536	23-15
7.	UC San Diego	14-14	.500	20-17
8.	Cal State Dominguez Hills	12-12	.500	16-17
9.	San Francisco State	9-19	.321	12-24
10.	Cal State San Bernardino	5-19	.208	11-21
11.	Cal State Stanislaus	4-24	.143	7-28

NCBWA WEST REGION TOP 10
East Bay climbed back up to the No. 4 spot in this week's poll, matching their highest ranking of the season. Once again, six of the top 10 teams in the West hail from the CCAA.

Rank	School (1st place votes)	Record	Vote Points	Last Week's Rank
1.	#3 Chico State (5)	27-5	50 pts	1st
2.	#8 Grand Canyon	29-6	43 pts	2nd
3.	#21 Cal State Monterey Bay	24-10	41 pts	3rd
4.	Cal State East Bay	24-10	32 pts	5th
5.	Dixie State	23-9	28 pts	6th
6.	#25 Cal State L.A.	21-13	24 pts	7th
7.	Cal Baptist	24-10	22 pts	8th
8.	Sonoma State	21-13	19 pts	4th
9.	Cal Poly Pomona	22-15	11 pts	10th
10.	Hawaii Pacific	24-14	4 pts	9th

Also receiving votes: Western Oregon (19-14), 1 pt.

PITCH PERFECT
It was a solid weekend for the Pioneer pitching staff in its first road test. As a team, they currently lead the CCAA and rank seventh in the nation with a 2.44 ERA. They're also tops in the conference with a .214 opponents batting average. Becker (6-1, 1.27 ERA), Pope (7-1, 2.60 ERA), Sharrer (2.60 ERA, 4 SV), Fontaine (2-1, 1.36 ERA, 3 SV), Hudson (2-1, 2.41 ERA), and Ben O'Bryan (3-2, 4.21 ERA) have all given East Bay quality innings in 2013. Becker has a 6:1 strikeout to walk ratio, and he and Pope are both top-10 in the CCAA in wins and strikeouts. They'll face one of their toughest tests of the year this weekend against Cal State L.A.

SWINGING THE STICKS
Overshadowed by what has been a historically great pitching staff, the Pioneer offense is having a really productive season. East Bay is batting .299 with a .367 on-base percentage, which rank fourth and fifth in the CCAA, respectively. Currently, seven Pioneers are batting over .300, plus Marcus Williams, who's 4-for-11 (.364) and recently retuned from an injury.

Zozaya (.347 avg) leads the Pioneers in hits (41), doubles (14), RBI (32), and total bases (60). Sharrer is batting .373 with a team-best .627 slugging percentage. Brandon Alexander is second on the team in hits (35) and RBI (24), and ranks among the conference leaders with three triples and three home runs.

SCOUTING CAL STATE L.A.
The Golden Eagles have won five straight after sweeping Cal State San Bernardino two weeks ago. Like the Pioneers, they had a bye last week. Cal State L.A. has arguably the best offense in the conference; they lead the CCAA in home runs and slugging and rank second in batting average, runs, hits, and doubles. Cody Doyle (.376 avg, .500 obp), Scott Masik (.378 avg, second in CCAA), Tyler Christian (.336 avg, CCAA-leading 14 doubles), and James Wharton (.441 obp, 8 HR, 39 runs) lead a potent Golden Eagle attack. They also have three of the top pitchers in the conference in LHP Jordan Sechler (5-1, 2.60 ERA, 55 K, 5 BB), RHP David Armas (5-1, 2.90 ERA), and Brandon Quintero (6-3, 3.48 ERA). CSULA has won five of their last six against East Bay since 2011. Last year, the teams split a doubleheader and had two games rained out.