TURLOCK, Calif. -- It was a thrilling day of softball at Warrior Field as Cal State East Bay and Stanislaus State played 20 total innings and split a California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) doubleheader, with each team recording a victory in its final at bat.

Pioneer starting pitchers Abby Greer and Olivia McWhorter were both excellent, and second baseman Maddie Ramirez was the offensive hero of the day with two multi-hit games and a game-winning two-run seventh-inning triple to close out the evening.

The first game of the afternoon was a thrilling showdown, and ultimately a heartbreaking defeat for Greer and the Pioneers. The sophomore out-dueled Stanislaus ace Kylie Ragsdale through the first six innings, carrying a one-hitter and a 1-0 lead into the seventh. 

The Pioneers got that lead in the 2nd inning when Ramirez knocked in Bailee Glover, who had doubled. Unfortunately, in the seventh, Ragsdale reached on an infield single and advanced to second on a ground out. Then with two outs, a double by pinch hitter Joerdan Lovell tied the game, forcing extra innings. 

Greer essentially pitched an entire second game, battling all the way into the 13th. She stranded runners on base inning after inning, but the Pioneers simply couldn't push anything across offensively. Finally with one out in the 13th inning, the Warriors strung together three straight hits as Megan Stacy doubled to drive in the winning run.

Ramirez finished 3-for-6 and Bailee Aguigui went 2-for-4 with a double and a walk to highlight an otherwise quiet first game for the CSUEB offense.

The Warriors kept their momentum going into game two, quickly grabbing a 1-0 lead in the first inning on back-to-back doubles by Aliyah Garvin and Desiree Gonzalez. At that point, after being one out away from victory only give up the lead and lose 6 innings later, then falling behind in the second contest, it would have been easy for the Pioneers to fold.

But they showed impressive mental toughness in refusing to quit offensively. And McWhorter provided a huge lift by quieting the Stanislaus bats with some zeroes on the scoreboard. Finally in the fourth inning, a pair of Warrior errors put two runners on base. Then an infield hit by Emilie Portesi plated the tying run, and a two-run double in the left-center gap by Courtney Leyba made it 3-1.

Stanislaus got a run back in the fifth, but McWhorter induced a double play to preserve the narrow lead. She was unable to match that feat in the sixth, when two defensive miscues by CSUEB allowed the tying run to come home. 

The game didn't stay tied for long, however. The first three East Bay batters of the seventh inning were retired, but a wild pitch on strike three allowed Sarah Fukushima to reach first. After a walk and another wild pitch, Ramirez ripped a ball to the opposite field, splitting the outfielders and bringing home both runners. McWhorter was able to secure the victory with a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh.

The sophomore did not walk a batter in 7.0 innings and allowed just two earned runs on five hits to improve to 2-0.

Ramirez was the only Pioneer with multiple hits in game two, finishing 2-for-4 with a run scored. The freshman went 5-for-10 in the doubleheader and knocked in three of East Bay's six runs.

The four-game series concludes on Saturday with another doubleheader scheduled to start at 12:00 p.m.