TURLOCK, Calif. -- The Cal State East Bay baseball team continued its late-season hot streak on Saturday by sweeping a doubleheader at Cal State Stanislaus. The Pioneers won by final scores of 14-7 and 6-4 in their final road contests of the 2015 season.
East Bay has now won 13 of its last 16 games to improve to 20-26 for the season and 17-22 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA). The second victory of the day was a milestone for head coach
Bob Ralston, as he reached 100 career victories. The Pioneer skipper accomplished that feat in just under four seasons, and he holds the best winning percentage in program history (.521).
Game 1 - CSUEB 14, CSUS 7The first game turned into a bit of a slugfest, with the teams combining for 30 hits, six errors, and nine walks. The Pioneers found themselves on the winning side, but they had to erase a five-run deficit to do it.
The visitors got things started right away in the first inning.
Rudy Navarro knocked in a run with a ground out following a single by
Myles Babitt and a double by
Ryan Kochan. But the Warriors hung a crooked humber on the board in the second inning against CSUEB starter
Jacob Phillips, using six hits and an error to score five runs.
Stanislaus added another run in the third against reliever
Justin Harr to make the score 6-1, but the Pioneers were resilient. They proceeded to score in six consecutive innings while Harr settled down and kept all the momentum in East Bay's dugout.
In the top of the fourth, the Pioneers loaded the bases with no outs, and
Dakota Conners drove in a run with a single. That was followed by a double play and an error by the third baseman, made it a three-run inning. They loaded the bases again in the fifth, and a pinch-hit sacrifice fly by
Daniel Carney brought CSUEB within two runs.
The visitors took the lead the following inning, opening the frame with four straight hits. Babitt, Navarro, and
Jason Fletcher picked up RBIs as the Pioneers went ahead for the first time, 8-7.
East Bay picked up two more runs in the seventh with a two-out rally. Kochan shot an RBI single down the third base line, and Navarro belted a run-scoring double into the right-center gap to give the Pioneers a three-run lead and some breathing room.
The Pioneers took advantage of two walks, a wild pitch, and an error to plate two more runs in the eighth. They kept the pressure on in the ninth as Fletcher ripped an RBI double into the corner, and then
Chris Porter knocked in the 14th run with a sacrifice fly.
In perhaps his last collegiate outing, Harr turned in one of his best performances of the season. He lasted 6.1 innings, allowing two runs on six hits and striking out three.
Angel Lara tossed a scoreless ninth inning to help Harr notch his fourth win of the year.
East Bay out-hit Stanislaus 17 to 13 for the game. Six Pioneers finished with multiple hits, plus Starnes was on base three times with a single and two walks. Kochan and
Ryan Wheat both went 3-for-5, and Navarro finished 3-for-4 with a team-high three RBI.
Game 2 - CSUEB 6, CSUS 4The trend from the first two games of the series continued in Saturday's nightcap, as both teams managed to put a lot of runners on base. The Pioneers got it started in the second with a walk and three straight hits to take a 1-0 lead.
However, Fletcher was thrown out at home on
Marcus Williams's single, and East Bay ended up stranding a pair of runners. Stanislaus took that momentum into the bottom of the frame and scored two runs against Pioneer freshman
Alex Vesia to take the lead.
The Pioneers took the lead for good in the fourth, sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring five runs. The inning featured two walks, an error, and five hits.
Devin Higgins capped off the rally by knocking in two runs with a bases-loaded single to left, making it 6-2 Pioneers.
The Warriors got two runs back in the bottom of the inning with a solo home run and three singles again Vesia, who was not quite as sharp as he's been more the majority of his impressive rookie season. The left-hander nonetheless picked up his team-high fifth victory in his final start of 2015, allowing three earned runs in five innings.
There were no late inning comebacks in this game as
Cole Compton tossed a scoreless eighth inning, and
Julian Garcia got the final three outs in the ninth to earn his third save of the season.
The Pioneers tallied 10 hits in the victory, led by Fletcher with a 3-for-4 performance. Carney went 2-for-3, and Porter drove in a pair of runs.
Kochan finished 1-for-4 in the second contest, extending his hitting streak to 11 games. The senior is batting .565 during that time to raise his batting average all the way up to .371, which ranks second in the CCAA.
East Bay will attempt to sweep the series when the teams play the regular season finale on Sunday, May 3 at 12 p.m. back in Hayward, The game will be preceded by a brief ceremony to honor the nine seniors who will be competing on Pioneer Field for the final time.