CHICO, Calif. -- The Cal State East Bay baseball team closed out its California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) series at Chico State with an epic victory on Monday, prevailing 11-10 over the Wildcats in a game that featured four lead changes and 39 total base runners.
The win gave the Pioneers a 3-1 series victory, their first in CCAA competition this season. The team is now 10-12 overall with a 7-9 conference record after what was undoubtedly their best weekend of the season so far.
Both offenses were clicking in this series finale, as both teams scored in five of the nine innings. East Bay ended up out-hitting Chico 14-12, but it was all Wildcats early.
As he had done the previous two days, head coach
Mike Cummins saved his normal starter -- in this case,
Jacob Call -- to bring in to start the fourth inning. Freshman
Mark Woinarowicz took the ball in the first inning and had a rough start, giving up three hits and a walk following a leadoff error. Cummins turned to
Joey Portugal for two outs, and then
Donavon Ramirez to close out the inning, but not before the Wildcats grabbed a 4-0 lead.
Although it felt like they had dug a large hole for themselves early, the game was far from over. A walk to
Dallas Dey and singles by
Matt Cantelme and
Colt Parshall plated the first Pioneer run in the second inning. After Chico answered back in the bottom of the frame to make it 5-1, East Bay hung three on the scoreboard in the third. They took advantage of an error and a wild pitch, got two productive outs from
Raymond Jones and Kyouke Ushimaru, and were powered by hits from Dey and
Dakota Conners.
In the fourth, the Pioneers mounted a two-out rally to tie the game, as
Evan Steele walked and came all the way around to score when
Paul Bryniarski doubled into the right field corner.
The fireworks continued in the sixth when back-to-back bunt singles by Parshall and Steele set the table. East Bay took the lead on a passed ball, and then extended it on an RBI double by Conners. Two batters later, Dey blasted a two-run homer to left field to make it 9-5.
The Pioneers seemingly had all the momentum after Dey's team-leading fourth round-tripper of the year, but once again, the game was far from over. The Wildcats staged a two-out rally of their own in the bottom of the sixth, as Alex DeVito followed a walk with a two-run homer off Call to cut the Pioneer lead in half.
Chico tallied three more hits to score two runs in the seventh, and just like that CSUEB's lead had evaporated and it was a new ballgame. After working 4.0 innings, Call handed the ball over to
Nick Risucci, who retired three straight batters to end the seventh.
Th next inning, the Pioneers put a pair of runners on base as Conners doubled and Dey singled. Then with two outs, defensive replacement
Adam Hollar got his first plate appearance of the game and shot an opposite-field single into right field to bring home two runs.
Staked to an 11-9 lead, Risucci pitched a scoreless eighth inning. After the Pioneers failed to extend their lead in the top of the ninth, Risucci came back out to the mound looking to close it out. But after a single and a hit-by-pitch, Cummins turned to staff ace
Alex Vesia, the winning pitcher in Saturday's game. After a walk to load the bases, Vesia allowed a sacrifice fly to make it 11-10. But with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, he retired the next batter on a fly ball to end the game.
It was the first save of the season for Vesia and the second victory for Risucci, who improved to 2-0.
Offensively, a trio of Pioneers led the way with three-hit performances. Dey and Conners both reached base four times, the former going 3-for-4 with a walk, three runs, and three RBI, and the latter finishing 3-for-5 with three doubles, a walk, and three runs. Parshall went 3-for-4 with an RBI, his second multi-hit effort of the series. He went 6-for-14 against Chico, improving his season batting average by over 90 points.
Next up, the Pioneers return for a four-game series with Cal State San Marcos, starting Friday, Mar. 23.
