HAYWARD, Calif. – The Cal State East Bay softball team secured their first California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) home series win 3-1 OVER UC San Diego after splitting Saturday's doubleheader at Pioneer Softball Field.
The Tritons took the opening game 4-1 after jumping out to an early lead. The Pioneers prevailed in the back end of the twinbill 5-3 to take three of four game sin the series.
With the doubleheader split CSUEB improved to 7-11 in CCAA action and 11-11 overall. While the UCSD Tritons, ranked #6 in the West Region, move to 14-8 on the season and 9-7 in conference play.
In the opening UC San Diego claimed a 3-0 after two innings of action. The Pioneers wouldn't get on the scoreboard until
Ali Cerminara pushed a RBI double to left field scoring
Sarah Fukushima who singled up the middle earlier in the inning.
Unfortunately, that would be the only run scored by East Bay in the first game of the afternoon. UCSD would add one final run in the top of the sixth inning to take a 4-1 victory.
Ashley Allen,
Sarah Fukushima,
Ali Cerminara and
Haley Keahi each finished with one hit in the game. Cerminara added a RBI and Fukushima scored a run for East Bay.
Olivia McWhorter (L, 2-5) started the game on the mound, striking out one batter without walking any through two innings tossed.
Bailee Glover led the Pioneers with 3.1 innings pitched and a strikeout.
In the series finale it was freshman
Abby Greer's turn on the mound. Greer (W, 6-5) picked up her second win of the series after retiring one Triton batter while walking two batters. She also recorded her second complete game of the series and sixth of the season after going all seven innings.
The game started off slow offensively as both defenses played soundly to begin the game. UC San Diego lit up the scoreboard first with back-to-back scores in the fourth and fifth innings.
East Bay answered with four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Ali Cerminara singled up the middle to begin the inning.
Haley Keahi then singled up the middle to advance Cerminara and
Emilie Portesi who reached on an error the Triton first baseman.
Cerminara would put the Pioneers in the scoring column after
Meghan Araneta was walked with the bases loaded. After
Ashley Allen reached on a fielder's choice,
Courtney Leyba crushed a 3RBI double to center field, bringing home Keahi, Araneta and Allen as CSUEB ended the inning with a 4-2 lead.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, senior
Ali Cerminara further cemented her place in the Pioneer softball record books with her 27th career home run with a solo blast over the left field fence to propel the East Bay lead to 5-1.
The Tritons scored one final run in the seventh but the Pioneers were able to hold them off for a 5-3 win to claim the series win.
Cerminara led the Pioneers with three hits, two runs scored and a RBI.
Courtney Leyba chipped in one hit with three RBIs.
Haley Keahi finished with one hit and a run scored.
Meghan Araneta tallied a RBI and scored a run. Ashely Allen also scored a run for CSUEB.
Next weekend, the Pioneers will return on the road as they travel south for a four-game series against Cal State Dominguez with doubleheaders on Saturday, March 18 beginning at 1:00 p.m. and Sunday, March 19 with a start time of 11:00 a.m.
