OAKLAND, Calif. -- If you hung around until the end of Friday's baseball game on a chilly night at Laney College, you might have witnessed something you've never seen before.

Cal State East Bay evened its series with Academy of Art at one game apiece after a 6-5 win that ended when the Pioneers pulled off a hidden ball trick at third base, with the bases loaded, to end the game. 

The Urban Knights out-hit the Pioneers 12-7 in total, but the visitors got excellent pitching performances from junior starter Jacob Call and senior Joshua Kubiske, who picked up the victory with three innings of hitless relief. Troy Resch lifted a sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th to drive home fellow senior Marcus Wise with the game-winning run. 

Resch was also involved when the Pioneers grabbed an early 2-0 lead in the first inning. He laced a one-out single that was misplayed by Art's right fielder, allowing Kris Bartlett to score all the way from first base for the game's first run. After a passed ball, Dakota Conners knocked in Resch to double the lead.

Call and Urban Knight right-hander Chris Petrosie traded zeroes until the fifth, when the Pioneers added another run thanks to a two-out rally. Bartlett drew a bases-empty walk, stole second base, and scored on Resch's opposite field single. 

Call came out after four scoreless innings in his season debut. He allowed three hits, walked one, and struck out five. Senior right-hander Alex Leach started the fifth and allowed the first four Art batters to reach, capped off by a two-run triple from Jackson Murphy to tie the game. Head coach Mike Cummins, who tonight notched his first victory as CSUEB's skipper, turned to Brandon Acosta. The senior gave up two more hits in the inning as well as an unearned run on an error in the outfield. He escaped the inning stranding two runners, but Academy of Art held a 5-3 lead.

The momentum shift didn't sway the Pioneers, who answered right back in the top of the sixth. Zack Perugi drew a walk with one out, and came around to score when Daniel Goodrich roped a double into the left-center gap. Goodrich then advanced to third on Matt Cantelme's fly ball and scored on a wild pitch to tie the game once again. 

Acosta got through the bottom of the sixth unscathed, stranding two more runners. He turned the ball over to Kubiske, who shut the Urban Knights down in the seventh, eighth, and ninth. But East Bay didn't muster any offense in the final three frames either, ultimately sending the game to extras.

The Urban Knights helped the Pioneers put a runner in scoring position in the 10th, as Wise led off with a four-pitch walk, moved up on a wild pitch, then took third on a balk. One batter later, Resch broke the tie with a sac fly to center field. 

Derek Oetken, who led the Pioneers with seven saves last season, took the ball trying to close out the game. After a leadoff walk, the senior retired the next two batters. Academy of Art then managed two well-placed ground ball singles to load the bases. 

After allowing that last two-out hit through the right side, however, Oetken never touched the baseball again. Instead it found its way into the glove of third baseman Michael Thomas unbeknownst to everyone else in the park, most notably Robert Villanueva, who represented the tying run at third base. Before Oetken took the mound, Villanueva took his foot off the bag, Thomas applied the tag, and the game ended in shocking fashion.

Resch was the only Pioneer batter with multiple hits, finishing 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI. Bartlett went hitless, but reached base three times on walks and scored two runs.

The two teams will now head down to Hayward to wrap up their four-game series with a doubleheader scheduled to start at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning.