Box Scores: Game 1 / Game 2
POMONA, Calif. - Despite losing a tough extra-inning contest in game one Saturday, 8-7, the Cal Poly Pomona baseball team rallied for a 5-1 victory in the second contest to earn a doubleheader split against UC San Diego.
Several Bronco hitters recorded huge days at the plate, with
Jordan Whitman's 5-for-9 effort and
Jenzen Torres' 4-for-7 performance taking center stage. In game one Saturday, CPP shortstop
Mike Santora tallied eight assists defensively, a mark that hasn't been hit since
Joe Villa notched eight in the 2008 season.
Broncos' right-hander
Kevin Bosson, the game two starter, threw a gem to capture the win for the hosts. He hurled a seven-inning complete game, scattering four hits and striking out seven. Across his last 18.1 innings pitched, Bosson has allowed just two runs.
CPP's marks now stand at 16-10 overall and 10-10 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. The visiting Tritons, ranked at No. 8 in this week's Collegiate Baseball Newspaper/NCAA Division II Top 30 Coaches' Poll, settle in at 20-8 overall and 13-7 through conference play.
Game One: UCSD 8, CPP 7 (11 inn.)
The first contest on Saturday featured a pitching matchup of CPP's
Ryan Dunn and UCSD's Greg Selarz. The Tritons' offense got going quickly, jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning after homeruns from Aaron Bauman and Kellen Lee.
The Broncos' attack rallied though as the hosts ended up taking a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the fifth. A one-run double from Santora put CPP on the board in the third, while a two-run single by
Chris Miller plated the Broncos two more scores in the fourth. The hitting continued in the fifth, as
Travis Taijeron, Whitman and Torres singled and Miller picked up a triple for an exclamation point on the rally.
The seesaw affair progressed though, with the Tritons taking back the lead, 7-6, after picking up one run in each of the sixth and seventh innings. A towering homerun from Taijeron into the trees beyond the leftfield fence in the bottom of the seventh evened the score at 7-7. It stayed that way until the top of the 11th, when UCSD's Kyle Saul ripped a solo homer that proved to be the deciding score.
Game Two: CPP 5, UCSD 1
In the second game of the day, the Broncos' bats came out firing once again, while the Tritons' offense couldn't muster much of anything while going against Bosson. A single to right field from Torres scored Taijeron in the first inning and CPP maintained that 1-0 edge through the opening four frames.
The Broncos poured on four insurance runs in the fifth inning, all on a two-out rally. Six consecutive CPP hitters reached base with two outs, starting with a
Ryan Goodman single and ending with a Miller single. The Tritons got on the board in the sixth but it proved to be too little and too late.
Overall in the four-game series against UCSD, the Broncos performed admirably on defense as they committed just two errors for a .986 fielding percentage. Santora finished the set with a total of 21 assists at shortstop.
Up next for CPP will be a four-game home series against Cal State East Bay starting Friday at 3 p.m., which will feature the "Pack the Stands" event at Scolinos Field.
