HAYWARD, Calif. - On Thursday and Friday, the Cal State East Bay baseball team dropped the first three games to Chico State of the final regular season series. On Thursday the Pioneers lost the series opener, 10-4. On Friday in a doubleheader, Cal State East Bay lost the first game 7-5 in 10 innings, and lost the second game, 2-0 in seven innings. 

Game One (Thursday) - Chico State 10, Cal State East Bay 4

The Wildcats scored three runs in the top of the third inning – one on a Willie Lajoie single to center field that drove in Jeffrey Ray, one on a Grady Morgan RBI single up the middle that scored Jack Murphy and one on a Kyle Dobson single to right center that scored Lajoie.

The Wildcats doubled their lead to 6-0 in the top of the fifth inning. Two runs came on a Dobson double to left field to drive in Morgan and Murphy and one on a Jacob Jablonski RBI double to left field that scored Dobson.

Trailing 6-0, the Pioneers tacked on four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. Matthew Mandeville hit an RBI single to left center to drive in Luke Novitske, Francisco Pedraza singled to left field to drive in Enrique Nunez and Manny Garcia got a pair of RBIs on a single to right center that scored Mandeville and Trevor Munson. Although the Pioneers cut the deficit, Chico State added four more runs en route to a 10-4 victory. 

Novitske led the Pioneers offensively as he went 2-for-4 and scored a run. 

Game Two (Friday) - Chico State 7, Cal State East Bay 5 (10 innings) 

Chico State took an early 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning with two runs scored on a Jack Murphy two-run home run and one on a Jablonski RBI triple that scored Kyle Dobson.

However, the Pioneers answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning – one on a Matthew O'Mahony RBI triple to right field that scored Manny Garcia and one on a Luke Novitske RBI single to left field to drive in O'Mahony.

In the top of the fourth inning, Tommy Scavone launched a solo home run, which was his first of the season to tie the game at 3-3.

The Wildcats broke the tie in the top of the fifth. Jablonski doubled in a pair of runs for a 5-3 lead.

Samuel Esparza hit an RBI single in the fifth inning to drive in Garcia, and in the bottom of the sixth, the Pioneers tied the game at 5-5 on a Francisco Pedraza RBI double to left center that drove in Munson.

The two teams would not score for the next two innings. In the top of the tenth inning, Jeffrey Ray broke the tie with a double to left field to drive in a pair of runs for a 7-5 lead. Although the bases were loaded in the bottom of the 10th inning for CSUEB, the Pioneers did not capitalize as Chico State won 7-5. 

Garcia went 2-for-3 with a pair of runs scored. 

Game Three (Friday) - Chico State 2, Cal State East Bay 0 (7 innings)

Chico State scored the game's only two runs in the top of the fifth inning. One was on an Elijah Jackson RBI single up the middle that scored Dobson and the second run was scored on a Ray RBI double to center field that scored Jackson. 

Then only hit for the Pioneers came in the bottom of the sixth inning on a single by Pedraza. With the hit, Pedraza extends his hitting streak to 12 games. 

Chico State went on to win 2-0 to take the first three games of the series.

In what is likely was his final appearance on the mound for the Pioneers, Mark Woinarowicz pitched 7.0 innings with eight strikeouts and has a team high 81 for the season and 141 for his career. 

With three losses to start the series for CSUEB, combined with Sonoma State's victories in a series against Cal State San Bernardino, the Pioneers have been eliminated from contention for a spot in the 2022 CCAA Baseball Tournament. 

Following the game, CSUEB head coach Mike Cummins spoke about the Pioneers' performances on Friday. "Two tough games against a quality team, they made the plays and did a good job of scoring runs with two outs," said Cummins. "Mark Woinarowicz was outstanding in his last appearance as a Pioneer." 

The regular season finale takes place Saturday with a matchup between the Pioneers and Wildcats at Pioneer Baseball Field. First pitch is set for noon. Prior to the game, seniors from Cal State East Bay will be honored for their contributions to the program.