The annual baseball alumni game kicked off a new season with a new coaching staff at Cal State East Bay’s Hayward campus on Saturday.

The game featured the current men’s baseball team who took on former Pioneers of all ages. This was the first game for new interim head coach Mike Cummins and his staff. Cummins took over for Bob Ralston and Darren Lewis who both resigned after they coached the team to the best season in school history last year at 33-22 overall, and an NCAA West Regional postseason appearance.

Cummins has some big shoes to fill, but has some solid NCAA Division I experience, especially at his last stint at San Jose State and his time as the head man at San Francisco State for six years.

He kept second-year assistant coach and former Pioneer Nick Hudson and added a new assistant in Andrew Ayers, who was previously the director of baseball operations at Sacramento State.

With 35 players on the 2017 roster and just five of them listed as freshmen, experience will be a huge factor for this year’s squad. Fourteen seniors and 13 juniors, including a slew of returners with valuable game experience, will be asked to anchor the team this season.