CHICO, Calif., -- The Cal State East Bay baseball team opened their four-game California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) road series against Chico State with a tough, 3-2 loss Friday afternoon at Nettleton Field.
 
With the loss, the Pioneers move to 10-5 overall on the season with a 6-3 mark in CCAA play.
 
The ballgame was a pitching duel between East Bay's hurler Ethan Brodsky (L, 1-2) and Grant Larson as both clubs complied just seven hits each. Brodsky tossed 8.0 innings while collecting one strikeout and forcing 14 groundout and seven fly outs. The sophomore from Mission Viejo did not walk any batters and only gave up two earned runs.
 
After a scoreless start through the first three innings of the game, Chico State took the lead with a two-run fourth inning. The Pioneers responded with a their first run of the game in the top of the fifth and added one more run in the two of the seventh to tie the ballgame at 2-2. But the home team Wildcats would score the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth inning on an RBI single to center field. That run would eventually prove to be the game winning run as CSUEB fell, 3-2.
 
Samuel Esparza paced the Pioneers with two hits, to go with his fourth double of the season and an RBI. Robert Lujan and Francisco Pedraza both finished with and hit and a run scored for East Bay.
 
Tim O'Dalaigh notched his second double in as many games while Kaleb Keelean added an RBI giving him seven total on the season. Ryan McSwain and Jordan Macias both tallied one hit each.
 
The Pioneers and Wildcats will play their only doubleheader of the four-game series tomorrow with the opening pitch of the first game scheduled for noon at Nettleton Field.