Community members crowded the stands at the newly renovated Pioneer Field to watch some softball on Saturday, Feb. 3. People came out to watch Cal State East Bay’s softball team play a doubleheader against Dominican. The crowd cheered on the Pioneers as they walked away with a 2-0 win.

Last season started off similar. In their 2017 double header season opener against Academy of Art, they also walked away winning both games.

“I think our team did well in the beginning of last season, but didn’t finish the season the way we would have liked,” Head Coach Claire Amundson told The Pioneer. “As a very young team, with a starting lineup of mostly freshmen and sophomores, we did some great things, but also faced some inconsistencies in the back end of the season.”

Coach Amundson confirmed that there are no seniors on this team, but there are some additional freshmen. This means the team will be together for the upcoming seasons to follow.

Another big change that happened for the team was a renovation of their softball field. Cal State East Bay’s facilities department approved to remodel the field.

“In doing the research,” Cal State East Bay’s Architect Chuck Corpus told The Pioneer, “I found that if any renovation to the field or facility is made, the NCAA requires the University to make all changes required to meet the current NCAA standards.”

The changes were done to match the baseball dugouts. New fencing was put in and dugouts and foul line locations were adjusted.

“We are grateful for the support the university has shown for our program and it really just sets the tone for our players everyday they take the field,” Amundson told The Pioneer.

Abby Greer pitched the first game of the day. She allowed only six hits throughout the entire game, yet no runs were made by Dominican. Greer was also named Athlete of the Week by Cal State East Bay for the week of Feb. 6 for shutting out the Penguins in the first game.

Both teams had six hits total in the first game, yet East Bay was able to score the only run of the game. Kassie Kochan scored in the seventh inning, after Bailee Aguigui hit the ball into left field. The run ended the game 1-0 in the seventh inning.

Both teams came back in the second game with more runs. Dominican started the top of the first inning of the second game with one run. East Bay then scored six runs right after at the bottom of the second.

There was high energy from the crowd as they played music between each inning. People were dancing and singing to the music.

East Bay kept up the defense in the second inning by shutting out Dominican and only allowing one runner to get on base, but no runs. Dominican then came back to score eight runs in the third inning. Nine players went up to bat before East Bay finally got one Dominican player out at first base.

Olivia McWhorter started off pitching this inning, but was switched out by junior Bailee Glover. Penguins didn’t have the lead since the top of the 1st inning, but then lead over the Pioneers, 9-7 at the end of the top of the third inning.

By the bottom of the third the teams were tied 9-9. Pioneers brought in two more runs this inning, first from Maddie Ramirez, followed by Aguigui.

The Pioneers brought back the action in the sixth inning. At the top of the sixth, Greer pitched again to the Penguins. This time no batters went to base. The top of the sixth ended with no hits, runs or errors.

The winning run happened at the bottom of the sixth. Courtney Leyba was on second base while Ramirez was up to bat. Ramirez hit the ball towards Dominican’s second baseman, who then made a mistake, allowing Leyba to score the run.

Dominican made no runs at the top of the seventh, ending the game with the score 10-9.