A former CSUEB baseball player from the class of 1977 warms up in the on deck circle during the alumni game last month on the Hayward campus.
Alumni game unites CSUEB baseball
February 12, 2015
It was a significant day for the men of the 1977 Pioneer baseball team: in front of about a hundred fans, they were the special guests at the 2015 reunion game between the 2015 Cal State East Bay baseball team and nearly 30 alumni players who came from the recent 2013 class and as far back as the 1977 class.
Alumni traveled from as far as Texas. It was 36 years and more than 1,600 miles of lasting pride for California State University, East Bay baseball players who made the trip back to Hayward. As a member of the 2013 team, I got a chance to play alongside former teammates and old friends.
Alumni were called out to the field during an opening ceremony and were honored for their time at CSUEB. School record holders, all-conference players, and CSUEB Hall of Fame recipients were stacked in the alumni dugout.
Recent White Sox draftee Charlie Sharrer, CSUEB single-season runs-scored record holder Stephen Gatehouse, single-season earned run average king Randy Rambis, and former head coaches Al Mathews and Doug Weiss, were a few of the more notable alumni in attendance for the event.
Before both teams officially started the game, the class of 1977 stepped on to center stage to throw out the first pitch together. This particular team captured the conference championship and went on to compete in the Western Regional Final, which still stands as the most successful post-season run in Pioneer baseball history.
The music was turned up and the sun was shining, it was a perfect day for baseball. Ball players from different generations began to step on to the diamond, and transition into the swing of the game.
The alumni were the home team. Sharrer got the start on the mound for the alumni, proved he still gives life to the electric fastball Pioneer fans got to see during his four years at CSUEB. Sharrer finished with two innings pitched and a couple of strikeouts, but that still didn’t stop the 2015 Pioneers from getting a run on the board in the first inning.
In the bottom of the second, I started the rally by getting walked, then stealing second base on the next pitch. Standing in scoring position, my former teammate and 2013 CSUEB Male Athlete of the Year Kyle Zozaya brought us both in with a mammoth home run to centerfield. It was as if nothing had changed in the two years we have been away from the game and put the alumni up to an early 3-1 lead at this point.
It did not take long for the 2015 Pioneers to answer back. In the top half of the third, their bats exploded, scoring four runs in the inning. Two of those runs came off a home run by senior infielder Daniel Carney, and they took the lead 5-3 after three completed innings.
The 2015 Pioneer pitchers kept the alumni bats pretty quiet for the rest of the game. But the alumni weren’t going to roll over until they gave their successors a run for their money in the game.
In the bottom of the sixth, with two runners on base, 2011 catcher Josh Rush laced a double into the left field corner that scored both runners. The score was 6-5 after six completed innings of play.
Senior utility player Jason Fletcher put the nail in the coffin with a two-run blast of his own into the trees behind left field in the top of the seventh. With the score at 8-5, both teams stayed quiet for the final two innings and the 2015 Pioneers squeaked by the alumni to take the three-run win.
The Pioneers now look ahead to the start of the 2015 season, after back-to-back 30-win seasons for the first time in school history, with their past standing firmly in support behind them.
