HAYWARD, Calif., -- The Cal State East Bay baseball team split their Saturday afternoon California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) doubleheader against the visiting Sonoma State Seawolves at Pioneer Field on April 28.
 
The visiting team began the day with a 13-4 rout of the home team Pioneers but CSUEB bounced back with a huge 5-2 victory to take a 2-1 series lead. With the twinbill split East Bay now sits 22-23 on the season with a 19-20 mark in conference action.
 
In the opening game saw the Pioneers jump out to an early 2-0 lead after senior Raymond Jones (San Diego, Calif.) knocked a leadoff triple through the left side. After Adam Hollar (Livermore, Calif.) was walked on the next at bat, Dakota Conner (Manteca, Calif.) singled through the right side to bring home Jones. Hollar would score before the end of the opening inning.
 
Jones finished the game with a triple and a run scored. Hollar added a run, a hit and CSUEB's only stolen base of the game. Conners notched a hit and a RBI.
 
The game would turn drastically for East Bay as Sonoma State rallied off a six run second inning. The Seawolves would go on to add two more run in the seventh inning followed by four runs in the eighth and one last run in the top of the ninth inning. Sonoma State collected 11 total hits in the contest.
 
Jacob Eder (Prescott, Ariz.) and Matt Cantelme (Fair Oaks, Calif.) both had multi-hit performances for the Pioneers. Eder had two hits and a RBI while Cantelme recorded two hits. Nolan Jekich (Boise, Idaho) logged his third double of the season. Steve Robinson (Yuba City, Calif.) scored his seventh run of the year.
 
Colt Parshall (Oakdale, Calif.) had hit and scored a run. Dallas Dey (Tustin, Calif.) and Evan Steele (Clovis, Calif.) each tallied a RBI apiece.
 
The Cal State East Bay pitching staff saw seven different hurlers take the mound in the ballgame. Donovan Ramirez (San Jose, Calif.) got the start and fanned one batter in his only inning of action.
 
Stas Kuntz (L, 0-2) (Fremont, Calif.) only allowed two earned runs while on the mound. Mark Woinarowicz (Yorba Linda, Calif.) lead the Pioneers with four innings tossed while striking out one Seawolf batter.
 
Ransome Alexander (Fullerton, Calif.) tied the team lead with two strikeouts through 1.2 innings of work. Jacob Nelson (Jefferson, Wisc.) recorded one strikeout while only giving up one hit.
 
Joe Blair (Modesto, Calif.) was the only other Pioneer to garner two strikeouts. Jordan Milligan (San Jose, Calif.) ended the opening game for East Bay with a strikeout and no hits nor runs given up.
 
Cal State East Bay was able to bounce back in the doubleheader finale due to some stellar pitching from senior RJ Hanson (W, 5-3) (La Honda, Calif.) tied a career high with six strikeouts through 6.0 innings of action. Fellow senior Andrew Fernandez (S, 1) (Castro Valley, Calif.) notched his first save of the season as he completed the game by fanning two batters in the final inning of the day.
 
The Pioneer offense opened the second game with runs in each of the first three innings. Raymond Jones finished the game with two hits, a RBI and a run scored. Nolan Jekich also had two hits, including his second double of the day, a run scored and a RBI.
 
Adam Hollar hit a double and added a run while Kyosuke Ushimaru (Tokyo, Japan) tallied a double and run scored.
 
Jacob Eder logged a hit, a run and a RBI and Dakota Conners ended the game with a hit and a RBI.
 
The Pioneers remain in the battle for a spot in the annual CCAA Tournament. East Bay will close their home series against Sonoma State with a single game Sunday afternoon, April 29 at Pioneer Field. The contest will begin at noon.