Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 CHICO, Calif. -- The Cal State East Bay baseball team defeated No. 5 Chico State, 3-1, on Saturday afternoon behind a complete game five-hitter by senior Ben O'Bryan. The victory snapped a 12-game winning streak for the Wildcats, which they extended with an 8-1 win over the Pioneers in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader. 

With the doubleheader split, East Bay is 16-15 and 10-13 in California Collegiate Athletic Association play. Chico State is 26-6 with a 18-5 mark in league play. The home Wildcats lead the series two games to one, heading into Sunday's finale at 11 a.m.

Game 1 -- Chico State 8, CSUEB 1

The first game of the day pitted senior hurler Sean Becker against Chico's Brad Lohse, who had thrown four consecutive shutouts coming in. The Wildcats staked Lohse to an early lead, scoring two runs in the second inning on three singles and a Pioneer error. 

East Bay cut the deficit in half in the fourth when Daniel Carney laced a single to plate Brandon Alexander, breaking a streak of 29 straight scoreless innings by Lohse. 

Becker held the Wildcat bats in check with five zeroes in a row, and the Pioneers still trailed just 2-1 going into the eighth inning. Chico had one runner on base with two outs when a second Pioneer error extended the inning. The Wildcats broke it open after that, notching five straight hits and scoring six times in the inning to pull away for the win. 

Becker (3-4) suffered the loss despite allowing just one earned run in 7.2 innings. The senior gave up eight hits, walked one, and struck out two. 

Kelly Starnes finished 2-for-4 out of the leadoff spot, and Alexander reached base twice with a hit and a walk. As a team the Pioneers totaled eight hits, although all of them were singles. 

Game 2 -- CSUEB 3, Chico State 1

The Pioneers needed a clutch performance from O'Bryan in Saturday's nightcap, and they got just that, picking up a crucial victory. It started the exact same way the first game of the series began -- with a leadoff home run by Starnes. The junior blasted a solo shot to left to put the Pioneers up 1-0, but the offense didn't stop there.

The next batter was senior Ellis Stephney, who laced a base hit into left and then stole second. After advancing on a groundout, Stephney scored the second East Bay run on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Kochan.

The Wildcats managed to string a couple hits together to plate a run in the fourth inning, but that was the only rally they were able to muster against the Pioneer hurler. 

East Bay tacked on its third run in the top of the seventh thanks to a bit of small ball. Two infield singles and a sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third with one out. Sophomore Marcus Williams then executed a squeeze bunt to bring home Carney and pick up the RBI.

O'Bryan ran into his only real trouble of the game in the bottom of the last inning when an error, a walk, and a hit batter loaded the bases with one out. But Tyler Buchanan made a big play for the Pioneers, catching the runner at second dancing too far off the bag. The pick-off took some air out of the Wildcat rally, and O'Bryan got the next batter to fly out to end the game. 

The senior right-hander allowed one earned run on five hits in his third complete game of the season. He walked two, struck out four, lowered his ERA to a team-best 2.12, and earned the victory to improve his record to 3-3. 

Starnes notched yet another multi-hit game, finishing 2-for-4 with his team-leading fourth home run of the season. Buchanan and David Elzig each had a hit as well.