CSUEB Baseball Earns Berth in NCAA West Regional
- May 16, 2016
Cal State East Bay’s historic 2016 baseball season will continue at the NCAA Division II West Regionals this week when the Pioneers (33-20) travel to Riverside for a six-team double elimination tournament hosted by California Baptist.
After winning a share of the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) North division crown and reaching the championship game of the CCAA tournament this past week, CSUEB earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Regional as the No. 6 seed. It will be the program's first trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament since 1977.
The Pioneers have a tough test ahead of them to open the tournament. They will play against the host team Cal Baptist on Thursday at 11 a.m. in the first round. The Lancers earned the top seed in the West after capturing the Pacific West Conference title with a record of 39-11.
The 2016 Pioneers have already set program records for wins in a season (33), hits in a season (573), and hits in a single game (26 on Feb. 19 vs. Fresno Pacific). They matched a program record with eight All-CCAA honorees and placed three players on the CCAA all-tournament team.
Individually, senior Rudy Navarro captured CCAA Most Valuable Player honors, making him the first Cal State East Bay student-athlete to win CCAA Player of the Year in any sport since the Pioneers joined the conference. Navarro enters the regional batting .419 after breaking the school record for hits in a season (85).
East Bay boasts one of the top offensive squads in the region statistically with a .319 team batting average and .392 on-base percentage. The Pioneers are the toughest team in the West to strike out, and they are among the top 10 teams in the nation in sacrifice flies.
The winner of the West Regional will earn a trip to the Division II College World Series in Cary, N.C.