LOS ANGELES -- Cal State LA's baseball team came up short Sunday in its attempt at a four-game California Collegiate Athletic Association sweep against Cal State East Bay.

The Golden Eagles fell behind for the first time in the series and couldn't rally in a 9-3 loss to the Pioneers at Reeder Field. Cal State LA (17-17, 11-13 CCAA) won the first three games of the series, but was unsuccessful in recording a second CCAA series sweep of the season.

Malik Clayton hit a solo home run as part of a two-hit, two RBI day, but the Golden Eagles fell behind 7-1 after four-and-a-half innings and never recovered.

Miles Halligan got the start for the Golden Eagles and blanked the Pioneers over the first three innings before running into some trouble in the fourth. He exited after being charged with four runs - three of them earned - over 3 1/3 innings. Moises Escobedo, Brent Jacques, Dorsey Chatham, Brandon Gutierrez and Michael Gill finished up on the mound for the Golden Eagles. Gill and Jacques each pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings.

Clayton was 2-for-3 with the home run and two RBI, while Elijah Jackson went 2-for-3 with one run scored and Matthew Piotrowski went 2-for-5 with one run scored and one RBI for the Golden Eagles.

Derek Murphy allowed six hits and three runs over five innings to get the win for Cal State East Bay (16-19, 8-15 CCAA). Ryan Juric and Drake Richardson combined for four scoreless innings to complete the win.

Jacob Klinovsky went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and three RBI for the Pioneers, while Danelle Daniels went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.

After the Pioneers broke a scoreless tie in the fourth inning with four runs, Clayton hit his sixth home run of the season, a solo shot to left, to lead off the bottom of the fourth.

Cal State East Bay got three more runs in the top of the fifth to take a 7-1 lead before the Golden Eagles got a run-scoring double from Piotrowski and a run-scoring single by Clayton to close the gap.

The Pioneers got two more runs in the seventh to account for the final scoring.

Cal State LA will return to action with the opener of a four-game series at Sonoma State on Friday.