POMONA, Calif. – Heading into the weekend series in a first-place tie in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA), the No. 18 Cal Poly Pomona baseball team will host the Cal State East Bay Pioneers.
 
CPP and the Pioneers will start the series on Friday at 1 p.m. The two teams will return to action on Saturday with an 11 a.m. doubleheader and then the series finale will begin at 11 a.m. Sunday.

After taking three-of-four last week from the UC San Diego Tritons, the CPP squad holds a 25-9 overall record, complete with a 17-7 record in conference play. The Broncos remain the only team in the CCAA with single digit losses on the season.
 
Cal State East Bay will head to Scolinos Field with a 5-19 mark in conference games, and an overall win-loss tally of 8-23. Most recently, the Pioneers dropped three-of-four to the Sonoma State Seawolves.
 
The two teams split the series last season, with the Pioneers taking the first and third game, and CPP taking the second and fourth. In the all-time series, the Green and Gold hold a slight advantage, securing victories in 25 of the 40 games against the northern opposition.
 
Cal Poly Pomona has had stellar performances from many of its student-athletes thus far this season. Many of those terrific showings have resulted in the Broncos finding their names on the CCAA leaderboards.
 
Leading the conference with a .404 batting average is Christian Kelley, a sophomore from Chino. Kyle Garlick's name comes up twice in the books; he leads the conference with 11 homeruns thus far in the 2015 season. The center fielder also has 30 runs batted in (RBI) good for fourth on the standings.
 
With one more RBI than Garlick, Nick Cooksey leads the Broncos and sits at third in conference with 31 RBI through CPP's 34 games.
 
While the CPP offense is running wild, the pitching staff has done a stupendous job limiting the opposing teams' offense. Cody Ponce is leading the Broncos with a 0.89 earned run average, allowing just five runs in his five appearances.
 
Ponce however, due to not having enough appearances yet, is not listed on the conference leaderboards. The three members of the Green and Gold's squad who are listed on the boards are Chris Powell, Ryan Olson, and J.J. Franklin.
 
Powell is third place in the CCAA with a 1.63 ERA through his nine appearances. Just a couple spots behind him, in the five spot is Olson, who currently owns a 1.91 ERA. The Broncos' sophomore also is in fifth place just one win behind the four-way tie for first, with five wins on the season.
 
Closing things out for the Green and Gold, and leading both the CCAA and the nation is Franklin, who has secured a total of 10 saves thus far in the 2015 season.