Box Score
By Aaron Castrejon
BroncoAthletics.com
POMONA, Calif. - Strong pitching and an early offensive run helped the Cal Poly Pomona baseball team pick up its fifth-straight win Friday, defeating Vanguard 5-4.
The Broncos improve to 5-0, while the Lions even out their record at 4-4. CPP will travel to Costa Mesa to take on Vanguard in a doubleheader Saturday with action starting at 11 a.m.
In the first inning Frday, VU pitcher Antonio Peraza walked the first batters and threw a wild pitch to put them in scoring position. A grounder to second base by Jenzen Torres allowed Ryan Goodman to score from third.
Peraza nailed Chris Miller with a pitch to put runners on the corners and a single by Tyson Edwards added another run. The Broncos would add another run off a single by Jordan Whitman.
Five Broncos put together fine contributions to today's win, including second basemen Ryan Goodman who collected one run, one hit and one RBI, while Mike Santora would collect two runs, one hit and two walks. Right fielder Jordan Whitman would rack up one hit, two hits, one RBI and one walk.
In six complete innings Broncos pitcher Casey Yokubaitis held Vanguard to just four hits, two runs and had two strikeouts.
In the Lions' fourth inning center fielder Tyson Leighton hits a long fly ball to right field, but Whitman made a spectacular jump to rob Vanguard of a homerun.
The Lions were able to step up their defense and hold off CPP for a few innings. In CPP's fourth inning after striking out Whitman and forcing Humberto Tovalin to ground out, second basemen Eric Sanchez made a great sliding stop and throw to first to rob Joseph Eusebio of a hit.
Vanguard put themselves on the board in the sixth inning. With a runner on, outfielder Matthew Avery launched a homer to right field to cut the Broncos lead in half.
With runners on the corners in the sixth, CPP's Ryan Goodman flied out to right field and Tovalin scored to bring the Broncos' lead to 5-3.
Pitcher Jake Reed relieved for CPP in the top of the seventh inning. With one out and a runner on first base, batter Jerry Pena ground into a textbook 4-6-3 double play. In his relief effort Reed held the Lions to just two hits and collected a strikeout in two innings pitched.
The game got interesting in the Lions' ninth inning. The Broncos brought closer Allen Rodarte to finish off Vanguard but their adversaries would not go down quietly. With a runner on and two outs, outfielder Jacob Domingos slammed a opposite-way homerun to bring the Lions within one run of Cal Poly Pomona.
Rodarte walked the very next batter. Vanguard put in Brandon Pesante as a pinch runner on and brought in pitcher Gabriel Garcia to pinch-hit, but the Broncos would get the batter to fly out ending Vanguard's threat.
