POMONA, Calif. – With the latest national ranking by the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper placing the Broncos at No. 18, they head to Carson to challenge the Cal State Dominguez Hills Toros.
With an overall record of 19-7 on the season, the Broncos carry an 11-5 mark in California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) play into the weekend. Game one of the four game series will take place in Carson at 3 p.m. on Thursday.
Game two of the weekend will also be held on CSUDH's campus on Friday at 3 p.m., and on Saturday, CPP will host the final two contests in a doubleheader at Scolinos Field. The first game on Saturday is set to begin at 11 a.m.
Heading into the contest, the Toros have secured an overall 15-13 mark on the year, complete with an even 10-10 in conference showdowns. They will host the Green and Gold after a series split with the Gators of San Francisco State.
Last year when the Broncos and Toros met, CPP won the series by taking 3-of-4. Looking at the all-time series between the SoCal rivals, CPP holds a slight advantage, winning 103 games to the Dominguez Hills' 85.
It has the potential to be a vastly exciting weekend as both teams are featured on the conference and national leaderboards and each owns a winning percentage of .500 or better.
Christian Kelley leads the Broncos with a .400 batting average, good for second place in the conference. The only person in the CCAA who holds a higher average is Kamran Young of the Toros. Young also holds a one homerun lead over
Kyle Garlick, placing them at one and two in that category, respectively.
Nick Cooksey is tied for fifth with three of his own.
Chris Powell and
Ryan Olson sit at fourth and fifth on the leaderboards with a 1.32 and 1.35 earned run average, respectively. Olson also owns four wins on the season, just one shy of Winston Lavendier from Dominguez who is tied for second in conference with five wins and sits at fifth with 40 strikeouts.
J.J. Franklin still dominates the save category in conference play and even leads the country in the category, holding nine thus far in 2015. Tyray Gatewood from CSUDH is tied on the CCAA leaderboards for second behind him at four.
The Broncos as a team are second in the conference with just 185 hits allowed, as well as second with a 2.85 ERA, just behind the Tritons of UC San Diego.
CPP understands the importance of small ball, as they sit at fourth nationally in the number of sacrifice bunts made (28). The Broncos' pitching staff also has been stellar as they rank at fifth nationally in the number of shutouts thrown (5).
