HAYWARD, Calif. – Cal State East Bay will close out the 2014 regular season at Pioneer Field when it hosts conference foe Chico State for back-to-back doubleheaders starting on Friday, April 25. Pioneer seniors Mandy Dale, Chelsie Kakela, Shaunna Purkey, and Meli Sanchez will be recognized prior to Saturday's contests in the final home games of their respective collegiate careers.

Standings: 2014 CCAA Softball

All four seniors in this year's class are junior transfers and have played in at least 79 of the team's 101 games since arriving in Hayward. The quartet has combined for over 200 hits and a .261 batting average during that time.

Sanchez played two years at East Los Angeles College before coming to Cal State East Bay. She has started all 101 contests and enters this series with a career .282 batting average. She is one of the most difficult players to strikeout in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) this season having gone done on strikes only six times in 163 plate appearances.

Kakela attended College of the Siskiyous before playing two years with the Pioneers. She has started 96-of-101 games and has 10 career homers for Cal State East Bay. Kakela has improved in nearly every statistical category from her junior season including a 70 point rise in batting average, a 230 point climb in slugging percentage, and her 37 RBI this season are nearly three times as many as a season ago.

Purkey attended Antelope Valley College before arriving at Cal State East Bay for the 2013 campaign. She has appeared in 80 games and made 51 starts in two seasons with the Pioneers. Purkey leads all active East Bay players with 14 career stolen bases.

Dale and Purkey arrived at CSUEB together after playing as teammates at AVC for two seasons. Dale has appeared in 79 games and made 25 starts during her two years with Cal State East Bay. The left-handed slapper has 14 hits and five stolen bases to her credit in nearly two full seasons with the Pioneers.

Cal State East Bay (24-25, 15-17 CCAA) and Chico State (23-23, 16-16 CCAA) are battling each other this weekend with hopes of coming from behind to grab the fourth and final spot into the CCAA Championships. Neither team controls its own destiny but with help from others can extend its season for at least one more weekend.

Sonoma State (33-17, 17-15 CCAA) controls its own destiny currently in fourth place and one game ahead of Chico State and Cal State San Bernardino (29-21, 16-16 CCAA). The Seawolves will be on the road to face San Francisco State (17-34, 8-24 CCAA) while the Coyotes are at nationally ranked No. 3 Cal State Monterey Bay (41-7, 22-6 CCAA).

Cal State East Bay will need to win at least three games to have any chance, and a series sweep of Chico State would introduce more possible scenarios. The Pioneers would need to do something they have yet to do versus the Wildcats in four seasons. Chico State is 15-1 against Cal State East Bay since 2010 and carries an 11-game winning streak versus the Pioneers into the weekend.

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