HAYWARD, Calif. -- The Cal State East Bay baseball team makes its final trip to Southern California this weekend for four games against Cal State Dominguez Hills. With Easter on Sunday, the Pioneers and Toros will begin their series a day earlier than usual with a 3 p.m. game on Thursday, Apr. 17. Friday's doubleheader will start at noon, and the squads will conclude wth an 11 a.m. game on Sunday.
WEEKLY RECAPThe Pioneers took three out of four games from Cal State Monterey Bay this past weekend. They captured the series opener at home, 6-2, behind an outstanding pitching performance from
Nick Hudson. The senior allowed just one hit over the final six scoreless innings of his complete game.
The teams then split their doubleheader last Saturday.
Sean Becker went the distance in the morning game, and
Marcus Williams went 3-for-4, including a game-winning double in the ninth inning of a 7-4 win. The Otters bounced back in the second game and edged out East Bay, 3-2. The Pioneers returned to Hayward for Sunday's finale and broke out offensively for 13 hits in a 9-2 rout.
The Pioneers hit .303 in the series as a team. Three of their starting pitchers tossed complete games, with the starters combining to throw 31 of the 33 innings in the four games.
PIONEER POINTSThe Pioneers are batting .267 with a .337 on-base percentage, and they rank second in the CCAA with 40 extra base hits in league play. Their pitching staff ranks fifth in the conference with a 3.53 ERA and fourth with a .253 opponents batting average.
Hudson (6-2, 3.34 ERA) and
Ben O'Bryan (3-4, 2.39 ERA), both seniors, is tied at the top of the CCAA leaderboard with four complete games each. Hudson also leads the conference in innings pitched during league play (52.2). O'Bryan, meanwhile, is fifth in the conference in strikeouts per game (7.69) and 11th in the nation in fewest hits allowed per game (5.47).
With three weeks left in the 2014 season, a trio of Pioneer hurlers are on the program's all-time leaderboard for career ERA. Becker ranks fifth at 2.61, Hudson ranks 10th and 3.21, and O'Bryan is 11th at 3.30.
Brandon Alexander batted .538 (7-for-13) in the series against CSUMB with four RBI and four runs scored. The senior ranks sixth in the CCAA in doubles (10), and he leads the team in RBI (26), on-base percentage (.411) and slugging (.459). ?
Daniel Carney, East Bay's leading hitter at .330 for the season, batted .417 against the Otters. Kelly Starnes hit .389 out of the leadoff spot in the four games, and he ranks third in the league with four home runs.
Williams started every game of the series and batted .429. The sophomore has at least one hit in five straight games, raising his batting average from .077 to .290.
Freshman Marcus Wise ranks second in the CCAA with 15 stolen bases.
WHERE DO WE STANDThe Pioneers are in fifth place in the CCAA at 14-14. They're currently five games behind fourth-place Cal Poly Pomona (19-9) and two games ahead of Dominguez Hills in sixth (12-16). East Bay was ranked No. 7 in the West Region in the latest National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) poll.
TRACKING THE TOROSCSUDH was swept on the road by Chico State in four games last weekend after having won seven of eight the previous two weeks. Three of their four losses to the Wildcats were one-run games. The Toros are batting .274 with a .357 on-base percentage and a 4.29 team ERA. Offensively, they lead in the CCAA in home runs (11) and rank second in slugging percentage (.366) and third in doubles (61), but they also lead the league in strikeouts. The Pioneers won three out of four games against the Toros last season in Hayward.
Peter Ives (.355 avg, .413 obp, 11 2B), Danny Haley (.343 avg, .396 obp), Bubba Rossman (.254 avg, 5 R, 21 RBI, 8 SB), and Kamren Young (.287 avg, 4 HR, 8 2B, 20 RBI) are the top hitters for Dominguez Hills. Jeffrey Gogue (2-2 3.14 ERA, 51.2 IP), David Haerle (6-4, 2.45 ERA, 66.0 IP), Tyler Mack (0-4, 6.64 ERA, 40.2 IP), and Brennan Bernardino (3-0, 2.06 ERA, 39.1 IP) are the projected starting pitchers for the Toros.
