HAYWARD, Calif. — It took the better part of four games, but the No. 3 ranked Cal State Monterey Bay softball team showed its true offensive mettle Saturday to earn a 6-3, 13-3 sweep over Cal State East Bay at Pioneer Field.

The sweep gave CSUMB (16-3, 9-3 CCAA) a 3-1 series victory over East Bay (14-10, 7-9). It also kept the Otters within one-half game of first place Sonoma State in the early conference race. Sonoma split at UC San Diego Saturday.

The Otters scored just five total runs in splitting a Friday doubleheader with the Pioneers, their lowest offensive output of the season. They entered the series averring better than seven runs per game. Saturday, they reached double digits runs in a game for the fifth time this season and double digit hits for the eighth and ninth times.

Senior Cori Reinhardt (Riverside Poly) starred in the opener. She pitched around trouble for most of the afternoon, stranding 11 East Bay baserunners to improve to 10-0. At the plate, her RBI double opened the lid on a 3-run Otter first.

Sophomore first baseman Madison Casto (Sunnyvale/Homestead HS) highlighted a 3-run fifth inning with a 2-run homer, her second of the season. East Bay scored two in the sixth and one in the seventh--loading the bases in its final at bat--before Reinhardt shut the door.

The nightcap saw East Bay rally from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 before the Otter bats finally woke up and pounded the Pioneers into submission. A leadoff walk to Casto and a double from Anneliese Lopez (Ventura/Buena HS) ultimately led to a pair of unearned runs that gave the Otters the lead for good at 5-3.

Reinhardt led off the sixth with a triple and scored on a Casto single. But the Otters really put the hammer down in the seventh.

Consecutive RBI doubles by Reinhardt and Bianca Noriega (Ventura/Camarillo HS) got the ball rolling. Eventually, Danica Arterburn (Sparks, Nev./Spanish Springs HS) capped the 7-run explosion with a 2-run double of her own.

Casto led the offense with five hits and four RBIs in the doubleheader. Reinhardt and Lopez each chipped in four hits, with Reinhardt's numbers including two doubles, a triple and four runs.

Arterburn, Noriega and Alissa Greenhaw (Galt/Cosumnes River College) chipped in three hits apiece to the 26-hit Otter onslaught.

The Otters will take a break from CCAA play when they host PacWest Conference foe Dominican University Tuesday for a noon doubleheader. That will open a 6-game homestand that concludes with a 4-game weekend series versus Cal State Dominguez Hills.