After two successful weekends in the California Collegiate Athletic Association Conference (CCAA) against Chico State (18-4 overall, 14-12 conference) and Cal State San Marcos (13-17, 8-16), the California State East Bay baseball team finally fell.

“We played some really good baseball those two weekends,” senior utility player Dallas Dey said.

The Pioneers faced off against UC San Diego (19-10 overall, 15-9) over the weekend in La Jolla, where they lost three of the four games in the series.

Things got off to a rough start in the first game of the series and CSUEB eventually lost in a huge blowout, 25-2. However, in the first game of their doubleheader on March 30, it was a close contest that could have gone either way, but the Tritons managed to pull out a win, 7-6.

East Bay took a 6-0 lead that they kept through the top of the sixth inning. Senior infielder Colt Parshall got the scoring started after he singled through the right side in the second inning, which put the Pioneers on the board first.

Junior outfielder Joey Dice followed up Parshall as he grounded out to first base, giving East Bay another run. They went on to score four more runs, which gave them the 6-0 lead.

San Diego responded in the bottom of the sixth inning, as they totaled 6 runs in the inning alone that tied the game up at 6. They scored another run in the bottom of the seventh inning and were able to take a 7-6 lead.

That was that last run scored by either team and San Diego nabbed their second victory of the series, 7-6.

“We made little mistakes and didn’t do a good job eliminating them when we had the opportunity to do so,” Dey said.

In the second game, the Pioneers bounced back.

Junior infielder Aaron Albaum opened the second inning with a single to right-center field to put the Pioneers up 1-0. He made some more noise on the field when he tried to steal second base and created a distraction that sent junior infielder Adam Hollar home for a 2-0 lead.

The Pioneers scored four more runs after that point, including three in the sixth inning to put them up 6-0.

San Diego scored a run in the bottom of the sixth inning but senior pitcher Alex Vesia was solid on the mound as he only allowed five hits and struck out six batters in his first complete game of the season.

“If our pitchers throw strikes and we compete every pitch and our hitters go up to [the plate] with the utmost confidence, we can make the playoffs and do well,” junior catcher Matt Cantelme said.

Vesia’s earned run average is currently at 2.36 runs per game, which is the fourth-best in the CCAA.

The fourth and final game of the series was a disappointment for the Pioneers as they fell 11-1, which gave the Tritons the series win 3-1 over the weekend.

East Bay now stands at 14-16 overall and 11-13 in conference play that puts them at fifth place in the CCAA North Division and eighth overall out of 12 teams.

They will face off at home against Cal Poly Pomona (17-13, 14-10), who are in first place in the CCAA South Division. The series starts tomorrow at Pioneer Baseball Field on the Hayward campus at 3 p.m.