HAYWARD, Calif. -- The Cal State East Bay baseball team hits the road this weekend for the first time in 2014 to open California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) play at Cal State San Bernardino. The Pioneers and Coyotes will play a 2 p.m. game on Friday afternoon, then a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 11 a.m., following by the series finale on Sunday at 11 a.m. Due to technical constraints, only Sunday's game will be available to follow on
live stats.
PRESEASON RECAP
The Pioneers only managed to get four non-conference games in prior to the start of CCAA play, as the Bay Area finally recevied some much-needed rain when the calendar turned to February.
East bay kicked off the season by sweeping Oregon Tech in a doubleheader on Feb. 1. Senior hurler
Sean Becker cruised through seven scoreless innings, and
Zac Chuvala went 3-for-3 as the Pioneers picked up a 5-0 win in the first game. They won 5-3 in game two as newcomer Daniel Carney broke a tie with a two-run double in the sixth inning, and
Nick Hudson retired the last 12 batters he faced to close it out.
Rain forced the cancellation of the series finale and also prevented the Pioneers from playing thir scheduled series against Menlo College the following weekend. East Bay and Menlo were finally able to make up two of those games yesterday at Pioneer Field. Oak starter Daniel Chavez stymied the Pioneers bats as Menlo won the first game, 2-1, but the Pioneers rallied to split the doubleheader with a 6-5 victory in the afternoon. Newcomer Jason Fletcher went 3-for-4 with the game-tying hit in the eighth inning and also pitched the ninth inning to earn his first save.
East Bay is batting .240 as a team in the first four games. Offensively, they have been led by Fletcher, who has been on fire, going 6-for-8 to start the season.
Brandon Alexander (4-for-10, 5 walks) and Chuvala (5-for-13, 3 doubles) are also swinging hot bats.
Although they have yet to face a Division II lineup, the Pioneer pitching staff has posted a 2.00 team ERA and held opponents to a .158 batting average so far. The expected starters for this weekend are Becker (1-1, 1.80 ERA 10.0 IP), Hudson (1-0, 4.50 ERA, 4.0 IP), junior
Michael Pope (0.00 ERA, 2.0 IP), and senior
Ben O'Bryan (0.00 ERA, 0 H, 5.0 IP).
SCOUTING SAN BERNARDINO
The Coyotes are winless to begin the season, but they've taken on two tough West Region opponents in Azusa Pacific and Cal Baptist. Through five games, CSUSB is batting .175 with one extra base hit, and their team ERA is 4.83. Remington Miller is 5-for-18 with a double, and Trevor McMaster has posted a .381 on-base percentage. Senior left-hander Kerry Kelley (0-2, 3.27 ERA, 11.0 IP, 1 BB, 8 K) is the team's top pitcher and will likely oppose Becker in Friday's series opener.
The Pioneers swept the Coyotes in four games at home last season, out-scoring them 32-14 in the series, on the way to a 22-18 record and fifth-place finish in CCAA play.
