Rain, rain, go away.

That must have been what the Cal State East Bay softball team was saying after the weather cancelled the final two games of their home series on Saturday with the Cal State San Marcos Cougars.

The Cougars (10-30 overall, 7-23 conference) pulled off a last inning comeback to take the first game 7-4 on Friday in Hayward. However, the Pioneers (14-22, 9-15) did not let the late game heroics get them down and bounced back with an 11-3 blowout victory in the final game of the shortened series.

CSUEB junior catcher Ali Cerminara got the scoring started in the bottom of the fourth inning when she blasted a three-run homer to left field. It is the fifth home run and 28th run batted in for the junior slugger who also hit another homerun in the second game of the series.

“When I’m in the batter’s box I try to zone everything out and just focus on my at bat,” Cerminara said. “The first home run I was just trying to score the runner on third. I had no idea the ball went over the fence. The second one we were just having fun because we were winning by so much so I was very relaxed during the at bat.”

Senior pitcher Sierra Clark was in control of the game and had a shutout going into the fifth inning. That’s when the Cougars’ bats woke up and thanks to 2 fielding errors by East Bay, they managed to score three runs and tie the game, 3-3. East Bay had 4 errors in the game, which led to several Cougars scores.

However, the Pioneers were able to regain the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning, when junior infielder Marisa Lerma hit a sacrifice fly that plated freshman outfielder Courtney Leyba for a 4-3 advantage.

Things stayed that way until the seventh inning when the Cal State San Marcos hitters came alive. Two errors got the inning started, and the Cougars capitalized on the Pioneer mistakes as they scored 4 runs in their final at bat. Clark came out of the game on the hill for East Bay and was replaced by senior pitcher Kelsey Cairns, who was able to get out of the inning without allowing any more runs.

However, the damage was done and the Pioneers could not bounce back in their final at bat, which made the final 7-3. Clark is now 8-9 overall on the mound for East Bay this season, with a miniscule 1.94 earned run average.

Game two of the series still saw some sloppy play from the Pioneers. San Marcos got on the board in the first inning, thanks to another error by CSUEB. The Pioneers recorded 8 errors in the two game series with the Cougars. A bad throw by the first baseman led to an early 1-0 lead for the Cougars after one inning.

It was East Bay’s bats that woke up early in this game. Things got started in the bottom of the second inning when a couple of hits, a sacrifice and a walk led to the bases being loaded for senior infielder Gabby Gonzalez. Gonzalez was locked in and hammered a pitch over the left-center field fence for a 4-1 East Bay lead.

San Marcos scored twice, once in the third and fourth innings to cut the lead to 4-3, nonetheless, the Pioneers were hot offensively and put up 3 runs in the bottom of the fourth and 4 runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to secure the 11-3 blowout victory.

CSUEB pitcher, senior Tatiana Beilstein, picked up her fifth win of the season in a complete game performance. Beilstein allowed just 1 earned run and 7 hits in 5 innings of work on the mound.

East Bay senior utility player Rose Marston leads the team with a .383 batting average and 41 hits. Gonzalez is second on the team in both of those categories at .383 and 40, respectively.

Next up for the Pioneers is another home series scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. East Bay will welcome the 24th ranked Chico State Wildcats (30-10, 21-9) to Pioneer Softball Field for doubleheaders both days. Games begin at noon on Saturday and 11 a.m. on Sunday.

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Photo by Melody Platt/The Pioneer