Pioneer baseball saw dominant pitching prevail during the weekend’s double-header this past Saturday against Hawaii Pacific.  Each team took a game, with Hawaii Pacific taking game one and California State University, East Bay taking game two.

In each game, the Pioneers jumped ahead 1-0 early and saw dominant performances from their starters, with senior right-hander Sean Becker going 7.1 giving up only 1 ER and senior Ben O’Bryan going seven innings and striking out 10.

The Pioneers took two of three in the overall series from Hawaii Pacific, who entered the weekend 8-1 to the Pioneers 6-6. “This was really big for us,” said Pioneer Head Coach Bob Ralston.

Game one started with an Eren Miravalles walk and Daniel Carney double setting the table for a two-out RBI from Zac Chuvala on a single. For six innings, Becker shut out the Hawaii Pacific offense, but in the seventh, they broke through for a run.

Neither team was able to break through for the next two innings, forcing the game to go into extra innings. The inability to add on would prove costly for the Pioneers as in the top of the 10th Hawaii Pacific scored five runs to take the lead alongside game one.

In the thirty minutes in between games one and two, Head Coach Ralston could be heard from the dugout all the way to the stands preaching the fundamentals to his team. Words like “We’re gonna throw strikes” and “Move the runners over” resonated around the area.

As game two kicked off in a light drizzle, the Pioneers once again struck early as Ryan Kochan and Kelly Starnes set the table for Mirevalles to drive Kochan in. In this game, the first blow proved to be decisive as O’Bryan took the mound.

A play that might get lost in O’Bryan’s brilliant pitching performance was how exactly the run was scored by the Pioneers. Starnes, who was an offensive standout in game one with two hits, executed a flawless sacrifice bunt to move Kochan over to second and allow Miravalles to drive him in.

O’Bryan worked seven innings, the scheduled game time, and struck out ten. He kept Hawaii Pacific shut down throughout the game as he allowed only six base runners via three walks and three hits in the seven innings. This shutout added to O’Bryan’s scoreless innings streak which now stands at 14.

Of the entire weekend series with Hawaii Pacific, the Pioneers took two of three games including Thursday’s six to four win. “We played a really good team,” said Ralston, “taking two of three from them was outstanding”.

The threat of rain during Saturday’s double-header was minimal compared to Friday’s rainout. The sky started out blue and partly cloudy at the beginning of game one, but by the transition between games one and two some rain had fallen and the sky was grey.

Insignificant rainfall did not stop game two from being played without a hitch. The full scheduled seven innings were played as the field held up for O’Bryan to throw his complete game gem.

The Pioneers will face Stanislaus State next, with a game in Turlock on Friday, a double header at home on Saturday and they finish the series with one more game at Stan. State on Sunday.