Pioneer baseball pitcher Bryce Miller tosses shutout to lead East Bay to Split with Chico State
Bryce Miller threw a seven-hit shutout against CCAA leader Chico State to help East Bay earn a series split.
- April 23, 2011
Pioneer junior hurler Bryce Miller tossed a seven-hit shutout as Cal State East Bay defeated CCAA leader Chico State, 5-0 in the second game of a doubleheader on April 23. Chico State won the first game, 11-3.
With the victory in the second game of the doubleheader, the Pioneers split the four-game series with the CCAA leading Wildcats.
Miller, who improved to 4-6 for the season, scattered seven hits in seven innings of work. He had two strikeouts and faced 28 hitters.
"I was getting my slider over and kept their hitters off balanced in the early part of the game," Miller said. "I went to my fastball in the later innings. Pitching a shutout against a team like Chico is an awesome feeling. As a team, we are coming together in the end.
Cal State East Bay broke a scoreless tie by scoring three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Aaron Brown opened the inning with a double and advanced to third on a groundout. With two outs, Lincoln Clapper walked and Scott Shields followed with a triple scoring both Brown and Clapper. Jake Davis doubled to score Shields.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Andrew Woolfe walked and scored on Clapper's triple. Shields drove in Clapper with a single.
Shields had two hits and drove in three runs. Clapper scored twice in the Pioneers' victory.
In the first game, the Pioneers tied the game 1-1 with a run in the bottom of the third. Jared Berrier walked, had a stolen base and came home on a Wildcat error.
The Pioneers took a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth as Clapper tripled home Josh Rush. Clapper later scored on a Shields' single.
Chico State scored a run in the top of the fifth inning to cut the Pioneers' lead to 3-2. The Wildcats' bats came alive in the eighth inning as they scored four runs on six hits to grab a 6-3 advantage.
Cal State East Bay had runners on first and second with no one out in the eighth, but were unable to score.
Matt Anderson hit a two-run home run while Justin Manci added a solo shot as the Wildcats scored five times in the ninth inning.
Pioneer senior hurler Paul Jinkens had allowed only one earned run on four hits with four strikeouts in seven innings. He ended with five earned runs on nine hits in 7.1 innings of work.
The Pioneers conclude CCAA play with a record of 13-27. Cal State East Bay will close the 2011 campaign with a three-game series at Grand Canyon University on April 29-May 1.