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Box Score 2 HAYWARD, Calif. -- The Cal State East Bay softball team won both ends of its doubleheader against Cal State Stanislaus on Saturday afternoon, racking up 21 hits for the day. Emily Perlich went the distance in both games, leading the Pioneers to a 10-3 win in the first game and a 9-7 victory in the nightcap.
The Pioneers split their four-game series with the Warriors, which puts their record at 24-25 overall and 15-17 in CCAA play with one week remaining in the regular season.
Game 1 -- CSUEB 10, CSUS 3The Pioneers took advantage of the long ball to start today's doubleheader with a relatively one-sided win.
Chelsie Kakela got the home team on the board early with a two-run home run to left field, her ninth of the season.
The Warriors got a three-run homer of their own in the top of the third to grab a brief 3-2 lead. However, that was the only scoring rally they would manage against Perlich in game one.
East Bay answered right back in the bottom of the inning, loading the bases with no outs. Ali Cerminara tied the game with a run-scoring single up the middle. After a pop out, Kelsey LaVaute drew a walk to plate another run, and Jaynie MacDonald followed with a base hit to put the Pioneers up 5-3.
Kakela picked up two more RBI in fourth inning as East Bay extended its lead. The senior roped a two-run double to the opposite field. After Cerminara doubled as well, LaVaute drove in the eighth Pioneer run with a sacrifice fly.
Two innings later, LaVaute cranked a home run out to right-center to cap off the CSUEB scoring. It was her team-leading 12th long ball of the season.
Perlich finished off the complete game to earn her 12th victory. She allowed three earned runs on five hits, issued three walks, and struck out three Warrior batters.
East Bay out-hit Stanislaus 11 to 5 in the game.
Meli Sanchez finished 3-for-3 at the dish with two runs scored, and
Lauren Vestal scored three times batting in the leadoff spot.
Kakela went 2-for-3 with a walk and four RBI. LaVaute's homer was her only hit, but she also knocked in four runs for the Pioneers.
Game 2 -- CSUEB 9, CSUS 7The second game of the day was much more of a back-and forth affair as the two teams combined for 19 hits and drew 11 walks in seven innings. This time it was the visitors who struck first, however. A two-run homer off the bat of Kristen Burns plated the first runs of the game and gave Stanislaus a 2-0 lead in the second inning.
But as they did all day, the Pioneer bats answered right back. LaVaute notched her sixth RBI of the day with a sacrifice fly to plate pinch-runner
Shaunna Purkey. After a pair of Warrior errors, the Pioneers scored two more runs on singles by Nikki Foster and Vestal to take a 3-2 lead.
The Warriors hit back-to-back home runs to re-rake the lead, 4-3, in the fourth. East Bay couldn't score in the bottom of the inning, but their bats broke out again in the fifth. After Kakela walked, Cerminara blasted one over the left field fence for her eighth home run of 2014. Marisa Lerma followed with a double and came around to score on a wild pitch, making it 6-4 Pioneers.
Once again, the lead didn't last long. Stanislaus clawed back and scored three times in the sixth inning to re-take the lead. With the bases loaded and one out in a tie game, Perlich hit a batter to bring home the go-ahead run. However, she then got a force out at home, followed by a fly out to right to escape the jam and keep deficit at just one run.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Pioneers had two runners on with two outs when LaVaute laced a double into left-center to tie the game. After a walk, East Bay scored the go-ahead runs on a wild pitch followed by an error by the shortstop.
Perlich then retired the Warriors in order in the seventh to preserve the 9-7 victory. She evened up her record at 13-13 for the season after allowing six earned runs and striking out four in her second complete game of the afternoon and her 19th of the season.
LaVaute, the reigning CCAA Player of the Week, reached base five times in the doubleheader and led the team with six RBI. Vestal finished with three of the Pioneers' 10 hits and also drove in a run. Kakela went 2-for-3 for the second straight game and scored a pair of runs.
The Pioneers wrap up their 2014 schedule next weekend with a pair of doubleheaders at home against Chico State. The series starts on Friday, April 25, and concludes with East Bay's "Senior Day" celebration on Saturday, April 26.
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