HAYWARD, Calif. – The Cal State East Bay baseball will conclude their 2017 regular season with their final California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) North Division home series against the visiting Stanislaus State Warriors.
 
The Pioneers (24-21, 15-18 CCAA) and Warriors (31-15, 20-14 CCAA) will compete in four games across three days beginning on Thursday, May 4 through Saturday, May 6 at Pioneer Baseball Field.
 
Saturday will be "Senior Day" for the Pioneers, featuring a ceremony between the two games to honor the 12 CSUEB seniors prior to their final home contest.
 
Stanislaus State enters the weekend having won 11 of its last 12 to clinch one of the three North Division berths to the 2017 CCAA Tournament next week in Stockton. The Pioneers are still alive, but will have to sweep the Warriors this weekend in order to have a chance to grab the third spot and make their second straight postseason appearance.
 
WEEK IN REVIEW
The Cal State East Bay baseball team dropped the opening game of their four game California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) road series against the Chico State Wildcats on Friday evening, April 28 at Nettleton Stadium.
 
The Pioneers battled the Wildcats to a 5-4 loss.
 
Despite the close one-run loss the Pioneers hit three home run blasts including two from Troy Resch and a solo shot from Michael Thomas.
 
East Bay lit the scoreboard up first in the opening frame of action sparked by Michael Thomas' solo blast to left field. Tory Resch followed the next at bat with his own solo homer over the right field wall to give the Pioneers a 2-0 lead.
 
Thomas and Resch are tied for the team lead with three home runs apiece. Thomas finished with a hit, a run scored, a RBI and a home run. Resch led CSUEB with three hits, two runs scored, two RBIs and two homers.
 
The Wildcats to knot the score at 2-2 with two runs of their own in the opening inning. Chico State would then take the lead with two more runs scored in the bottom of the third inning to claim a 4-2 advantage.
 
The Pioneers looked to return the favor started by a Joey Dice double to center field. in the next at bat, Zack Perugi belted an RBI single to right field scoring Dice and cutting the Chico State lead to 4-3.
 
Joey Dice complied a double and a run scored while Zack Perugi added two hits and a RBI.
 
In the top in the six inning Tory Resch would tie the game at 4-4 with his second solo shot over the right field wall.
 
But the Wildcats would respond with a run in the bottom of the sixth frame and hold on for the 5-4 victory.
 
Jacob Call (L, 5-4) led the Pioneers with 3.2 innings tossed, recording a strikeout and walking two batters. Joshua Kubiske allowed just two runs during his two innings of action.
 
Joel Lamont and Nick Risucci both logged an inning of action combining for a strikeout and two walks.
 
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 Cal State East Bay baseball team erased a 6-1 deficit on Sunday to force extra innings at Chico State, but the No. 4 ranked Wildcats walked off with a 10th-inning victory in the series finale to the complete the four-game sweep.

Chico improves to 38-7 with a 31-3 record in conference play and a 25-1 record at Nettleton Stadium. The Pioneers drop to 24-21 overall with a 15-18 mark in California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) games, putting their postseason hopes on life support.

The Pioneers fell behind 3-0 before finally putting a run on the scoreboard in the fifth on Colt Parshall's RBI ground out. But the Chico State offense was relentless, scoring in six of the first eight innings. 

Pioneer starter Andrew Fernandez battled through six innings, allowing six hits. He was charged with five runs, but just one of them was earned as East Bay's defense struggled early in the contest.

The home team led by five runs after seven innings, and it looked like the teams were headed for another one-sided decision. However, the CSUEB bats came alive in the eighth. They loaded the bases with no outs and then picked up a pair of runs on a walk to Zack Perugi and a single by Troy Resch After a pop out, Joey Dice lifted a sacrifice fly to make the score 6-4 Wildcats.

With two outs, Daniel Goodrich continued an impressive series by belting a double to left, knocking in a run and putting the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. Matt Cantelme cashed in on that opportunity, ripping a two-run single to left to give the Pioneers their first lead of the day at 7-6.

However, the Wildcats tied the game in the bottom of the eighth against Nick Sergi on Cody Snider's RBI single. It then took Chico just one extra inning to secure the win against Joshua Kubiske, as Snider singled home Andrew Carrillo, who had left off the 10th inning with a triple, with the walk-off run. 

The Pioneers tallied 11 hits in the loss, with Cantelme (2-for-4) and Goodrich (2-for-5) leading the way. They also got some offense from a most unlikely source. With a roster decimated by injuries, head coach Mike Cummins had an extremely limited list if healthy position players to work with, and so he turned to junior Jacob Call to play second base. An All-CCAA pitcher in 2016, Call had never appeared at any other position in three years with the Pioneers. 

Though overshadowed by the extra-inning loss, Call's performance was extremely impressive. He did not make an error in five defensive chances and went 2-for-4 at the plate with two singles and a run scored.
 
TOPS IN THE NATION
East Bay has done several things well to head into the final regular season series with a 24-21 record, but when it comes to swiping bases, they have been one of the best teams in the country. Heading into this weekend, the Pioneers are tied for 31st in Division II with 77 stolen bases. Even more impressively, they've only been caught 24 times in 99 attempts.
 
Senior Marcus Wise leads the CCAA and is 15th in the nation with 25 stolen bases so far on the season, while only being caught five times in 30 attempts for a .61 stolen base percentage.
 
KEEPING DOWN THE K'S
The Pioneers have been solid offensively, batting .282 with a .363 on-base percentage as a team, both are in the top half of the conference. East Bay has three players in the top-20 of the CCAA in batting average.
 
Michael Thomas (.352 avg, .418 obp, 33 RBI), who is 12th in the CCAA in batting average, is 6th with a .535 slugging percentage, 4th in doubles and 11th in RBIs. Wyatt Foreman (.333 avg, .396 obp, 43 Hits) is currently 14th in the conference in batting average and is second on the team in batting average and on-base percentage. Troy Resch (.331 avg, .468 slg, 12 2B, 51 Hits) is 16th in the conference in batting average, and second on CSUEB in slugging percentage, RBIs and total bases. Dallas Dey (.385 obp, .301 avg, 43 Hits), is the only other Pioneer batter batting over .300. Dey is fourth on the Pioneers in batting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage.
 
But as was the case in 2015, one of their biggest strengths is drawing walks and putting pressure on defenses. They rank sixth in the league in walks (169), and they only have 27 more strikeouts (196) than walks. Individually, Kris Bartlett is seventh in the conference with 25 free bases.
 
STIFLING STAFF
The Pioneers have a 4.88 team ERA with 141 walks and 225 strikeouts in 378 innings. Their top three starters – Alex Vesia, Joel Lamont and Jacob Call – have a combined 4.62 ERA. Meanwhile relievers, Andrew Fernandez, Nick Sergi, Brandon Acosta and Joey Portugal have combined to allow to allow 54 earned runs through 125.5 innings tossed for a 3.87 combined ERA.
 
SCOUTING STANISLAUS STATE
The Stanislaus State Warriors have already clinched the second seed of the CCAA North Division after winning 11 of their last 12 games including a 3-1 series victory over Cal State Monterey Bay putting them at 31-15 on season with a 20-14 mark in CCAA play. The Warriors are batting .268 with a .348 on-base percentage highlighted by nine players batting over .250. Kyle Nixon leads Stanislaus State with a .309 average, 51 hits and 39 runs scored.
 
The Warriors pitching staff has combined 3.32 ERA. Stewart Alexander leads the Stanislaus State with a 1.85 ERA, 43 strikeouts and a 7-3 record.
 
The Pioneers and Warriors split their season series 2-2 in 2016.
 
 SENIOR DAY
The Cal State East Bay baseball team will honor its 12 seniors in between Saturday's doubleheader. The Pioneers will recognize seniors: Michael Thomas, Daniel Goodrich, Marcus Wise, Kris Bartlett, Nick Sergi, Joshua Kubiske, Zack Perugi, Derek Oetken, Brandon Acosta, Alex Leach, Troy Resch and Wyatt Foreman.
 
Please come out and celebrate these seniors as they complete in their final home series on the Pioneer career.