HAYWARD, Calif. -- The Cal State East Bay baseball team scored in six consecutive innings on its way to a 17-4 blowout victory over Fresno Pacific on Thursday afternoon at Pioneer Field.
The Pioneer offense racked up 15 hits and drew nine walks in the series opener in support of starting pitcher
Alex Vesia, who earned the victory to improve to 2-0.
CSUEB is now 6-2 to open the season, while the Sunbirds fall to 5-5 with three games remaining in this non-conference series.
The visitors jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first on an RBI single by preseason All-American Preston Scott. After leaving the bases loaded in the second, Sunbirds picked up another run in the third against Vesia to make it 2-0.
The East Bay bats came alive in the home half of the inning, as singles by
Daniel Goodrich and
Michael Thomas and a walk to
Marcus Wise loaded the bases with no outs.
Rudy Navarro got the Pioneers on the board with a sacrifice fly, then
Dakota Conners got the big hit of the inning with a two-out, two-run single up the middle to give the home team a 3-2 lead.
East Bay doubled its lead two frames later when senior
Rob Link lifted a high, towering drive into left field that found the trees for a solo home run.
FPU was resilient against Vesia, however, tying the game in the top of the fifth. After a leadoff walk, three straight singles plated two runs for the Sunbirds. They still had two on with one out, but the Pioneer southpaw induced a double play to escape further damage.
The Pioneers took control of the game in the bottom half of the fifth when they sent 12 men to the plate and hung seven runs on the scoreboard. After an infield hit by
Michael Thomas and a walk to Navarro,
Joey Dice gave the Pioneers a 5-4 lead with a line drive single to left. After two more free passes,
Chris Porter laced a single into center field to plate two more runs. All told, Easy Bay had just three hits in the inning, but took advantage of four walks, two errors, and a successful double steal.
Vesia was relieved after the Pioneers took their big lead. He allowed four runs on eight hits in 5.0 innings. The reigning CCAA Freshman of the Year struck out the side in the fourth and finished with six punchouts for the afternoon.
The sophomore lefty was followed by a trio of right-handers out of the bullpen, as
Andrew Fernandez tossed the sixth,
Michael Frantz pitched the seventh and eighth, and
Alex Leach made his Pioneer debut to close out the victory in the ninth. The three relievers combined for 4.0 hitless innings with six strikeouts.
East Bay tacked on two runs in the sixth, another in the seventh, and three in the eighth to complete the rout. 17 runs is most runs the squad has put up since a 21-10 victory over UC San Diego on March 1 last season.
Porter had a monster day, finishing 3-for-4 with four RBI. Navarro also had a three-hit day, tallying a walk, two doubles, two RBI, and two runs scored.
Thomas went 2-for-4 with a walk and crossed home plate twice. Conners was on base three times as well, going 1-for-3 with two walks and three runs driven in. Dice notched a multi-hit day, finishing 2-for-3, despite exiting the game in the sixth as the Pioneers utilized their bench in the blowout win.
The series continues on Friday as part of CSUEB's
Homecoming 2016. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m., with sophomore
Jacob Call expected to take the mound for the Pioneers.
