HAYWARD, Calif. – The Cal State East Bay baseball team started a four-game homestand on Friday afternoon as they hosted San Francisco State at Pioneer Baseball Field. The Pioneers lost a tight matchup 2-1.

The pitching matchup was between the Pioneers' Mark Woinarowicz and the Gators' Jordyn Eglite. The Pioneers got on the board first in the bottom of the third inning as Francisco Pedraza hit a sacrifice fly to left field that drove in Essex Brown Jr. for a 1-0 lead. Brown Jr. got on bae by way of a single and reached scoring position by a single from Manny Garcia.  

From that point, the two teams would not score a run for the next four innings of play. In the top of the eighth, the Gators scored a pair of runs – one on a bases loaded walk to drive in Sammy Gonzales and the go-ahead run on a Gavin Mancha single that to bring in Kody Gardner and take a 2-1 lead. The Pioneers had runners in scoring position in both the bottom of the eighth and the bottom of the ninth innings but could not capitalize, as SF State finished with a 2-1 win. 

Woinarowicz pitched seven innings and struck out four, allowing a pair of runs.

Garcia led the Pioneers' offensive attack going 3-3 with a walk. He currently is hitting .366 on the season.

Following the game, CSUEB head coach Mike Cummins spoke about his team's performance on Friday. "We wasted a great pitching performance by Mark Woinarowicz," said Cummins. "I thought he gave us everything he had and obviously we came up short. We had a couple of opportunities to score a run here or there and didn't do it and that's how you lose 2-1 games."

The Pioneers and Gators return to Pioneer Baseball Field on Saturday for a CCAA doubleheader on Saturday. First pitch for game one is set for noon and game two is set for 3 pm.