Box Score
Sean Leahy
BroncoAthletics.com
POMONA, Calif. - Despite facing a 3-0 deficit against Cal State Dominguez Hills Friday, the Cal Poly Pomona baseball team didn't back down. The Broncos rallied to tie the score and send the game into extra innings. During the bottom of the 10th,
Humberto Tovalin led off with a double and later crossed the plate for the winning run on a single from
Ryan Goodman.
With Friday's 5-4 result, CPP improves to 9-3 overall and 3-3 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association and CSUDH falls to 4-9 overall and 0-6 through league action. Last season, the Toros finished 41-20 overall and advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament.
Goodman paced the Broncos in hits with three, marking his fifth multi-hit game of the season.
Allen Rodarte recorded his first career win after throwing a scoreless inning of relief.
Sophomore right-hander Erick Ruvalcaba took the mound for the Broncos in just his second start of the season on a gloomy afternoon at Scolinos Field. CPP would look to build on the momentum from yesterday's 13-inning thriller and gain another win in conference play.
The Toros would score early as they plated two runs in the first inning off Ruvalcaba. The game started off with back-to-back singles by Carlos Leyva and Jose Jauregui. They would later score on an RBI single by Abel Medina and an RBI groundout by Jonathan Keener. However, the Broncos would get out of the inning with just the two runs scored.
Ruvalcaba would settle down as he would cruise through the next four innings without allowing a run to the opposing CSUDH.
“These wins have been about our pitching,” CPP head coach Randy Betten said. “These guys in the bullpen have really stepped up for us and kept these games close for us.”
After a 30-minute rain delay temporarily stopped the action in the fourth inning, the two teams would resume action while racing against Mother Nature.
The Toros would strike again in the sixth inning. Two singles and an error would load the bases with only one out in the inning. With Ruvalcaba against the ropes, Betten turned to his bullpen to minimize the damage. Left-hander Shane Phillips got two quick outs from the Toros, while only allowing one run to cross the plate on a sacrifice fly ball by Leyva.
Rain or shine, the Broncos were having a tough time trying to figure out CSUDH starter Josh Corrales throughout most of the contest. The junior right-hander wouldn't allow a hit until the sixth inning, and that's when things would begin to unravel for the Toros, as the Broncos would rally for three runs in the inning.
Ryan Goodman would get the first hit off of Corrales, advancing John Pollock—who had reached base on a fielder's choice earlier—to second. After a wild pitch advanced the runners into scoring position, Corrales would then proceed to walk Mike Santora to load the bases with only one out. That walk would bring up CPP's RBI leader, Travis Taijeron. The senior slugger would continue his torrid hitting with a booming opposite-field double to right center, scoring Goodman and Pollock and advancing Santora to third. Santora would score on the second wild pitch of the inning by Corrales, tying the ballgame at three a piece.
CSUDH would answer back in the seventh, however, by scoring a run on an RBI single to left field by Medina after Kevin Pillar had led off the inning with a triple. Medina would be thrown out trying to stretch that single into a double on a heads up play by Pollock, thus killing the rally for the Toros.
The Broncos weren't done scoring either, as they would tie the game up once again in the bottom of the seventh. An RBI groundout by Mike Neff would score Jordan Whitman, who led off the inning with a double to right center.
The game would remain tied until CPP's half of the 10th inning. Humberto Tovalin would lead the inning off with a double. Pollock would then reach base and go to second on a bad throw by relief pitcher Michael Cruz, with Tovalin advancing to third. That would set the stage for Goodman, who promptly slapped a base hit past the drawn-in infield, giving the Broncos their second walk-off win in as many days.
The Broncos' bullpen pitched a combined 4.2 innings, and gave up just one run, giving CPP the opportunity needed to win the game.
The Broncos head out on the road to finish the series up in Carson with a double header Saturday starting at 11 a.m. CPP will return home on March 4th to face Sonoma State at 2 p.m. next Friday.
