POMONA, Calif. - The Cal Poly Pomona Broncos baseball team has moved into a first-place tie with Cal State L.A. in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) as the CPP squad took both games of the Saturday doubleheader against the UC San Diego Tritons. Game one the Green and Gold won 8-3 and game two was won by four runs with the final score at 11-7.
 
The Broncos improve to an overall 25-9 mark on the season, complete with a 17-7 tally in the CCAA. With the losses, the Tritons fall to a 23-12 season total and a 19-8 showing in conference play.
 
GAME ONE: CPP 8 - UCSD 3
 
Taking the mound for the Broncos and securing the win in game one was Max Bethell. The junior lefty dealt a total of 7.2 innings in the ballgame, allowing just four hits and two runs to score while striking out seven of the visiting batters.
 
Nick Cooksey was the offensive standout for the Broncos in the game as his 4-for-5 performance from the plate added two RBI in for the Green and Gold. Also with runs batted in were Christian Kelley, Kyle Garlick, Michael Zidek, and Ryan Webberley.
 
Just four Broncos scored in the game, but each of them did so twice. Kelley, Garlick, Nicholas Bruno, and Jacob Bernardy crossed home and gave CPP the winning runs.
 
Kelley and Cooksey both doubled in the third inning and added runs to the Bronco scoreboard. In the fifth, Garlick reached on a fielder's choice that scored Bruno, then advanced to second on a wild pitch that brought home Bernardy.
 
Just after that, Zidek hit a hard grounder back at the pitcher, who attempted to get the runner at second but instead sent the ball to the center fielder and allowed Garlick to score.
 
Webberley had a scoring single in the seventh inning and the Broncos led 6-1. In the eighth, Cooksey added his final hit of the game as he singled through the left side and scored Bernardy. Immediately after Cooksey got on, Zidek doubled and Garlick scored, pushing CPP's run total to eight. The Tritons did post their final run in the ninth but the score was 8-3 in favor of the Broncos.
 
GAME TWO: CPP 11 – UCSD 7
 
With Cody Ponce on the mound, the second looked as though it would be a low scoring game, and it was, until the sixth inning. Ponce dealt five complete innings on the bump for the Broncos and recorded one strikeout per inning. He allowed just one run to cross on four hits and threw a mere 81 pitches.
 
After the Tritons scored in the fifth, Bernardy delivered a clutch hit to tie the game up at 1-1. Then came the sixth… nothing happened in the top half of the inning, but the Broncos feasted in the bottom half.
 
CPP posted a total of 10 runs in the bottom half of the sixth inning. Cooksey scored, Garlick scored twice, Zidek scored, Matt Reynoso scored, Matt Munoz scored, Webberley scored, Bruno scored, Kelley scored and Bernardy scored.
 
The final four runs in the inning crossed with two outs and the total of 10 runs for that frame fell just one shy of the school record.
 
During the top half of the final inning, the Tritons' offense answered back with six runs of its own, but that was not enough as the Broncos secured the win 11-7.
 
Looking Ahead
Bronco baseball will return to action on Friday with a 1 p.m. start against the Cal State East Bay Pioneers. All four games are set to be played at Scolinos field over the weekend.