Baseball falls to San Bernardino
March 7, 2018
The Cal State East Bay baseball team lost their four game road series to the CSU San Bernardino Coyotes 3-1 (5-9 overall, 5-3 conference) over the weekend in the California Collegiate Athletic Association Conference (CCAA) play.
“We didn’t play to our full potential,” junior catcher Matt Cantelme said. “We have a lot to work on, luckily there’s a lot of season left to do that.”
Things began on Friday when the Pioneers put together an impressive comeback after being down 6-1 after four innings.
San Bernardino capitalized on three Pioneer errors on the defense, which turned into three unearned runs for the Coyotes.
After trailing, the Pioneers cut the lead to 6-2 in the top of the fifth inning when junior outfielder Kyosuke Ushimaru filed out and junior outfielder Paul Bryniarski scored.
East Bay went on to score three runs in the top of the sixth inning after junior outfielder Joey Dice hit a home run to center field scoring junior infielders Dakota Conners and Adam Hollar.
The Pioneers scored in every inning after that, which gave them a 9-7 win in the first game over the Coyotes. Conners went 3-for-5 with three runs and both Dice and Hollar went 2-for-4 with two runs each.
Unfortunately, this was the only win the Pioneers would see the entire series despite some close contests.
“We didn’t play our best baseball, obviously,” senior pitcher Jacob Call said. “I still feel confident about our season. We are stuck on getting out there and putting the pieces together, we can’t stress out just yet.”
In the second game, the Pioneers were down 4-0 after the Coyotes scored four runs in the bottom of the second. East Bay responded with three runs in the top of the third inning after senior outfielder Raymond Jones doubled down the line to give the Pioneers two runs. Then, Ushimaru reached on a fielder’s choice to the pitcher and Hollar advanced.
The next two innings remained scoreless on both teams end, then at the top of the sixth inning the Pioneers managed to score another three runs, taking the 6-4 lead.
San Bernardino responded r in the bottom of the sixth inning, scoring two runs to tie the game at six.
East Bay was unable to score any more runs and the Coyotes secured the win scoring the last run of the game in the bottom of the seventh inning thanks to a single to the right side, capping off a 7-6 win.
On Sunday, the Pioneers played their final two games of the series and lost both games by one run in close finishes.
Call started the game strong as he only gave up one run through the first three innings, but the game took a turn for the worse for the Pioneers after that.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, San Bernardino scored five runs to give their squad a 6-1 lead.
Luckily, the Pioneers were able to follow up, as they scored two runs in the top of the fifth then two more in the top of the sixth.
East Bay was down 7-5 by the bottom of the sixth inning but scored a run in the seventh inning but so did the Coyotes, Then East Bay scored two runs in the eighth inning and the Coyotes responded with two runs of their own.
Despite taking the lead in their last at bat, San Bernardino came back and scored three runs to secure a 13-11 win.
The Pioneers are now 6-8 overall and 3-5 in CCAA conference play and stand in tenth place out 12 teams. They will take on CSU Stanislaus in a four game series starting Friday.
“Every weekend is a grind and it’s the teams the bring energy every weekend that win games,” Cantelme said. “If our pitchers throw strikes and compete every pitch and our hitters go up to the plate with confidence and have production at base, we can be successful.”
