LOS ANGELES – Cal State East Bay baseball dropped both games of Friday's CCAA doubleheader against Cal State L.A., but finished the series Saturday with a victory. The Pioneers lost 16-13 in the first game and 3-1 in the second game on Friday, They responded well on Saturday to close the series, leaving Los Angeles with a series split, winning 8-4. 
 
Game One (Friday) – Cal State L.A. 16, Cal State East Bay 13
The Pioneers took an early 2-0 lead on a Francisco Pedraza two-run home run to left center. The Golden Eagles responded to tie the game with a pair of their own runs in the bottom of the first, and took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the second. 

The Pioneers got even at 3-3 in the top of the third inning when Luke Novitske was hit by a pitch when the bases were loaded as Essex Brown Jr. scored the tying run. 

In the next three innings, Cal State L.A. scored 13 unanswered runs for a 16-3 lead. 

However, Pioneers scored seven runs in the top of the eighth inning. A trio of Golden Eagles errors, combined with RBI hits from Anderson and Nunez (two RBIs) led to seven runs for Cal State East Bay. In the inning, runs for Cal State East Bay were scored by Enrique Nunez, Ryan Maciel, Cole Anderson, Matthew Mandeville, Trevor Munson, AJ Ruoco and Manny Garcia. 

The Pioneers would tack on three more runs in the top of the ninth inning – one on a bases loaded walk of Matthew O'Mahony that scored Donovan Bailey, another on bases loaded walk of Nunez that scored Garcia and one on a fielder's choice to the shortstop by Maciel that scored Rouco. However, CSUEB stranded a pair of runners on the final out, as Cal State L.A. took the first game of Friday's doubleheader. 

Pedraza led the Pioneers' offense going 2-3 with two RBIs and one run scored. Nunez had three total RBIs in the game. 
 
Game Two (Friday) – Cal State L.A. 3, Cal State East Bay 1 (7 innings)
The Pioneers took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a wild pitch that scored Brown Jr. The Golden Eagles answered with two runs in the bottom of the first – one on an A.J. Salgado ground out to second base that scored Johnny Pacheco and one on a sacrifice fly RBI by Will Picketts to drive in Wilem Drozdowski. The Golden Eagles would tack on a run in the bottom of the fourth inning on a Nick Atkins RBI single to right that scored Gerardo Castaneda.

Brown Jr. led the Pioneers going 1-3 with a run scored. He also had three stolen bases in game two for 29 on the season, which ties a Cal State East Bay record for stolen bases in a season.  

Saturday - Cal State East Bay 8, Cal State L.A. 4
Will Picketts' solo home run to left field in the bottom of the second inning got the scoring started, as the Golden Eagles led 1-0. The Pioneers would respond in the top of the third inning with five runs – one run on a fielders' choice RBI by Maciel that  Manny Garcia, one on a fielding error that allowed Maciel to score the go-ahead run, two on a Samuel Esparza triple to center field that scored Mandeville and  Bailey and one on a throwing error that allowed Esparza to score, giving Cal State East Bay a 5-1 lead.

The Pioneers added three more runs in the top of the fifth inning on a Francisco Pedraza three-run home run to left field. The home run was Pedraza's team-leading eighth of the season, which is currently fourth in the CCAA. 

Although the Golden Eagles added three runs between the fifth and sixth innings it was not enough, as Cal State East Bay finished with an 8-4 win to split the series with Cal State L.A.

Esparza went 3-for-5 on Saturday with two RBIs and a pair of runs scored. 

Tristin Tatum picked up his third win of the season on the mound for the Pioneers with 6.0 innings pitched and a pair of strikeouts. Ethan Brodsky earned his second save of the season allowing no runs in 3.0 innings of work. 

Cal State East Bay sits in the seventh spot in the CCAA standings through Saturday's action, one game behind Sonoma State for the sixth spot. The Pioneers next series will be in Hayward from April 22-24 against Cal State Dominguez Hills. Game one is set for this coming Friday at 3 p.m. from Pioneer Baseball Field.