CHICO, Calif. -- The Cal State East Bay baseball team dropped both ends of its doubleheader on the road Saturday afternoon at Chico State, the No. 4 ranked team in the nation. The Wildcats racked up 24 runs in the two game, winning by final scores of 14-4 and 10-4 to take a 3-0 lead in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) series heading into Sunday's finale.
Chico improves its conference record to 29-3, clinching the CCAA regular season title. The Pioneers, meanwhile, have now lost eight of their last nine to drop to 24-20 overall and 15-17 in conference games. With one more game at Chico, followed by four at home against Stanislaus next weekend, East Bay will need a very strong finish in order to keep its postseason hopes alive.
The Wildcats scored early and often in Saturday's first game, tagging CSUEB starter
Alex Vesia for 12 runs on 10 hits. The home team broke the game open with five runs in the fourth inning taking advantage of a pair of Pioneer defensive errors.
Most of East Bay's offense came from
Daniel Goodrich, who tallied three of the team's eight hits, including a two-run homer in the second inning, his second of the season.
Game two followed a similar script, as the Pioneers found themselves in a hole early. Chico pushed across seven runs in the first three innings against
Brandon Acosta before the Pioneers could get on the scoreboard.
CSUEB scored twice in the fourth, capped off by an RBI single by
Dallas Dey. They picked up two more runs in the fifth, as Goodrich doubled home
Wyatt Foreman, and
Matt Cantelme followed with a single to plate Goodrich.
Unfortunately, the Pioneers had no rallies left after the Wildcats scored three more times in the bottom of the fifth. East Bay did post 11 hits just seven innings in the nightcap, with Goodrich leading the way. The senior went 3-for-4 again to finish the doubleheader 6-for-8 with a homer, two doubles, three RBI, and four runs scored. Dey and Cantelme also notched multi-hit performances, with two singles and an RBI each.
The Pioneers will look to salvage the series finale on Sunday, which has first pitch scheduled for 11 a.m. at Nettleton.
