CHICO, Calif. – After Friday's postponed CCAA game at Chico State, the Cal State East Bay baseball team resumed its series with the No. 11 Wildcats on Saturday at Nettleton Stadium and split a doubleheader. Chico State came back to take the first game, 8-7, but the Pioneers answered in the second game on Saturday with a 7-4 seven inning win.
 

Game One: Chico State 8, Cal State East Bay 7
Dominick Najar opened the game with a four pitch walk, then stole second base. He then stole third base on a four pitch walk to Danelle Daniels. After Daniels walked, he stole second base to reach scoring position with no outs. And the Pioneers scored their first run of the game on an RBI single from Luke Brown. Following Brown's single, Jacob Klinovsky hit a groundout, but drove in Daniels for a 2-0 lead. After Brown reached third, Aidan Morton reached base on an error that allowed the Pioneers to lead 3-0 when Brown came to the plate.
 
The Wildcats for one run back in the bottom of the first, and another in the third, but East Bay was ahead 4-2 on an RBI single from Nick Thomson in the top of the fourth.
 
The lead grew to 5-2 in the top of the sixth on a sacrifice fly RBI from Jaylen Hodges.
 
Chico State climbed back into the game in the bottom of the sixth with a pair of RBI singles as the lead was trimmed to 5-4.
 
Brown singled again in the top of the seventh, driving in Daniels and Najar for a 7-4 lead.
 
Chico State kept pace with a two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh off the bat of Troy Kent, as the lead for the Pioneers was 7-6 through seven innings.
 
After a scoreless eighth inning, the bases were loaded for the Pioneers in the top of the ninth. They however did not capitalize for insurance runs as the one run lead held into the bottom of the ninth.
 
A leadoff walk in the bottom of the ninth to Carson Case, followed by a sacrifice bunt, put the tying run in scoring position for the Wildcats. Thade Miller doubled to drive in Case to tie the game at 7-7. Three batters later, Daniel Vierra hit an RBI single to drive in Miller for a walk-off 8-7 win for Chico State.
 
Game Two: Cal State East Bay 7, Chico State 4 (7 innings)
Chico State took an early 1-0 lead on an RBI single from Vierra in the bottom of the first.
 
East Bay exploded for six runs in the top of the fifth. With the bases load, Klinovsky singled to drive in Thomson, then Gio Martini singled to drive in two more runs and a 3-1 lead. Carson Cripe, Hodges and Thomson also delivered RBI singles in the inning as the Pioneers led 6-1.
 
The Wildcats got two runs back in the bottom of the fifth, and one more in the sixth, but Jacob Froess scored an insurance run for the Pioneers in the top of the seventh after a groundout RBI from Najar.
 
East Bay led 7-4 heading into the bottom of the seventh. A leadoff hit by Kent seemed to start a rally for Chico State, but a double play to follow and a flyout to end the game gave the Pioneers a 7-4 win in game two.
 
Max Gonzales, who started for the Pioneers, improved to 3-1 on the season with 5.0 innings on the mound and a pair of strikeouts. Ryan Juric picked up his first save of the season.

• Klinovsky finished with five hits on the day, going 5-for-8 with two RBIs.
• In game one, Brown went 4-for-5 with three RBIs.  
• Najar had three stolen bases in the first game. And through Saturday, he has eight which is tied for third most in the CCAA.

Cal State East Bay: 10-11, 6-5 CCAA
No 11 Chico State: 16-8, 9-6 CCAA
 

The Pioneers and Wildcats will wrap up their series on Sunday with a first pitch set for 11 a.m. from Nettleton Stadium.