Box Score
By Aaron Castrejon
BroncoAthletics.com
POMONA, Calif. - Early hits from
Jenzen Torres and
Tyson Edwards, along with
Geoff Broussard shutting the door on a late Sonoma State rally, helped the Cal Poly Pomona baseball team secure an 8-5 victory Sunday to split the series with the Seawolves.
The Broncos even their California Collegiate Athletic Association record at 6-6, while SSU falls to 6-2 through conference play. The two squads hold overall marks of 12-6 and 11-2 respectively.
Ryan Dunn took the mound for the Broncos and pitched 5.1 great innings, allowing only four hits and one run while collecting two strikeouts.
The Seawolves made a statement in the first inning. Steven Filippi led off and reached first after getting nailed by Dunn. With one out, O'koyea Dickson hit a tapper to second basemen Ryan Goodman who made a tumbling stop, but tossed a bad throw to Mike Santora allowing both runners to reach safely. Dunn pitched himself out of the jam though, getting Kyle Jones and Randy Wells to fly out.
“He pitched outstanding,” CPP head coach Randy Betten. “When you have starting pitching like that it's always going to give you a chance to win.”
Joshua Nervis of Sonoma struggled from the onset and had difficulty finding the zone. Nervis started by walking Torres. Tyson Edwards followed up with a solid double down the first base side getting Torres to third. Chris Miller's sacrifice fly got CPP on the board 1-0. Nervis walked third baseman Allan Rodarte, putting runners on the corners. Taylor Larson also hit a sacrifice fly to bring in a run.
The Broncos would explode for five runs in the fifth inning. With Goodman on at first, Nervis hit Travis Taijeron to put men on at first and second with one out. Goodman wasn't done and stole second on a bobbled throw attempt by Sonoma catcher Kyle Cerrudo. Jordan Whitman poked a single to left field allowing Goodman to score.
With Jacob Fiss in the relief effort for Sonoma, the Broncos would add to their score on a Torres three-run double to left field extending the CPP lead to 5-0. Later in the inning, with the bases loaded, pinch hitter Scott Vincent singled to give the home team two more runs.
In the 6th inning, SSU would bring in their first run of the game with a one-out bloop single to center field. With Michael Parker in relief for Dunn, SSU would continue to threaten. On what would have been a textbook double play, Rodarte would throw the ball into center field allowing Dickson to score. Rodarte would redeem himself, though, by executing a double play to keep SSU's offense from continuing.
Down 8-2 in the 9th, the Seawolves would inch closer to the Broncos lead in a big way with a three-run bomb to left field courtesy of Dickson to bring the score 8-5. The Broncos brought in Geoff Broussard to shut down SSU and did just that by forcing Kyle Jones to fly out and struck out Randy Wells. With a runner on, Garrett Schwartz laid down a bunt in front of the plate for Torres to throw him out at first to end the game.
“It's a growth for us," Betten said. "To see what we did and how we competed, it's steps forward for this program.”
Next up, the Broncos hit the road for a four-game stint in Turlock, Calif., to take on third-place Cal State Stanislaus starting March 11.
