HAYWARD, Calif. -- The Cal State East Bay baseball team fell to visiting UC San Diego on Saturday by a final score of 9-3. The 17th-ranked Tritons (12-6, 8-2 CCAA) have taken the first two games of the four-game California Collegiate Athletic Association series from the Pioneers (3-7, 0-6 CCAA). 

The teams were originally scheduled to play a doubleheader today, but a brief thunderstorm after the conclusion of the first contest forced a postponement. Both squads agreed to play a doubleheader on Sunday, Mar. 1 to wrap up the series.

The Pioneers grabbed an early lead against Triton starer Alon Leichman in the bottom of the first inning. Freshman Dakota Conners nestled a single into the gap in shallow right center, then stole second base. Senior Jason Fletcher picked up the RBI with an opposite-field double to the warning track.

UCSD answered back with two runs in the second inning off East Bay's Justin Harr, highlighted by a Jack Larsen home run. But the Pioneers quickly erased the deficit as senior Chris Porter belted his second home run of the season into the trees beyond left center. 

With the score 2-2 in the third, the visitors mounted their biggest rally of the game to take over the lead for good. The Triton batters had five straight hits to open the inning, and they ended up scoring four runs in the frame.

Freshman Jacob Call came out of the bullpen to relieve Harr. After getting through the third inning, Call gave the Pioneers an outstanding relief performance, hanging four straight zeroes on the board. The Fremont native ended up tossing six innings, allowing one unearned run on just two hits in his longest outing of the season thus far. 

Conners and Fletcher combined to get East Bay one run back in the eighth. The former reached on an error, moved up to second on a wild pitch, and scored on Fletcher's two-out single to left.

The Tritons tacked on a pair of runs on three hits in the ninth against junior Wyatt Foreman. They ended up out-hitting the Pioneers 12 to nine for the day.

Fletcher led the way offensively for CSUEB, finishing 3-for-4 with two runs batted in. Junior Rob Link reached base twice for East Bay, shooting a single through the hole in the ninth and drawing the only walk of the day issued by the UCSD pitchers. 

Sunday's doubleheader is set to begin at 11 a.m. at Pioneer Field, with the second game scheduled for seven innings. Left-handers Angel Lara and Alex Vesia are the Pioneers' projected starting pitchers as the team looks to pick up its first league victory.