CARY, N.C. – Despite a tremendous rally in the ninth inning to send the game into extras, the Cal Poly Pomona baseball team dropped a tough 7-4 result to No. 1-ranked Tampa on Sunday in the Broncos' opening game of the Division II World Series.  

The epic battle between CPP and the Spartans lasted 10 innings and four hours and 20 minutes. With the loss, the Broncos (43-16) will play an elimination game on Tuesday against Truman at 12 p.m. Pacific (3 p.m. Eastern).

In the most recent Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll, CPP held a No. 8 ranking while Truman was ranked at No. 17. After falling to Mercyhurst in extra innings, Truman now holds an overall record of 35-21.

Mike Philp delivered the clutch game-tying double in the ninth and also starring offensively was cleanup hitter Michael Zidek, who went 3-for-5. The CPP middle relief also put together stellar outings as Max Bethel, Michael Koval and J.J. Franklin put together scoreless appearances.

Righthanded starter Cody Ponce ran into trouble in his first inning of work. Tampa scored three runs on three hits and CPP was forced to enter the bottom half of the inning at a 3-0 disadvantage.

While the bottom half of the first didn't result in any runs, the Broncos' bats were alive as CPP put two runners on and all instances of connection proved to be hard-hit balls. Adding to his strikeout total in the top of the second, Ponce caught another member of UT looking to send the Broncos to bat in the second.

Ryan Webberley led off the bottom half of the second with a single up the middle. He was then moved over as Mike Philp got nailed in the back by a pitch that missed its mark. Nicholas Bruno then singled to the left side to load up the bases for the CPP offense.

Kyle Garlick came up and drove in the Broncos' first run of the game with a long sacrifice fly to right field that brought Webberley home to cut the Spartans' lead to 3-1.

The two squads went scoreless through the next two innings until the next run was scored by CPP in the fifth. Garlick singled to lead off the inning then was moved over by a sacrifice bunt by Christian Kelley. A single to right from Zidek then scored the center-fielder from second and brought the Broncos to within a 3-2 deficit.

In the sixth, the designated visiting team, UT, added another run as they had a string of hits that all fell in at the correct time and brought around their fourth run of the game.

After a new pitcher came in and struggled to find his groove for Tampa in the sixth, the first two batters reached safely via walk and then Brennen Salgado came in and got hit at the ankle to load up the bases for Garlick. The Chino Hills native drove in his second run on yet another sac fly. Philp scored from third after leading off the inning with a walk. At the onset of the seventh, the score sat at 4-3 in favor of the Spartans.

After seven innings and two earned runs allowed along with eight strikeouts, Ponce exited with a runner on first in the eighth inning. Bethell entered in relief and struck out his last batter faced for the second out of the eighth. Koval came in to finish off the CPP defensive half of the inning.

With the ninth inning under way, the Broncos called on J.J. Franklin and Austin Boyle to finish the work on the mound. CPP finished the top half of the ninth without allowing anymore Spartans to cross.
 
Philp came up in the ninth with Zidek on second and delivered. He sent a long double to the right center gap to tie things up between the Broncos and the Spartans. With that all the fans at Coleman Field got to experience free baseball. With Boyle on the mound, the game went to the 10th inning.

In the top of the 10th inning, a few wild throws by the Bronco pitcher found the body of a few Spartan batters and that helped put Tampa in front. After that, with the bases loaded, the Spartans doubled to bring home a couple more and push forward to the 7-4 final score.