POMONA, Calif. – The Cal Poly Pomona Broncos continued the stellar start to their 2016 season as they defeated the UT Permian Basin Falcons in both contests of a Saturday doubleheader at Scolinos Field.
Securing the two wins for the baseball squad were
Peter Beattie and
Michael Koval. In Beattie's victory, the Green and Gold topped the Falcons 4-2. The second contest of the day, Koval's win saw the hometown Broncos win 4-0.
Game One: Broncos 4 – Falcons 2 In Saturday's opener, the Broncos offense was alive and well. Total, the squad tallied 11 hits, and all but one member of the CPP starting nine reached base safely.
Caleb Romo, who started at first base for the Green and Gold secured three runs batted in as he went 1-for-4 in the game. Scoring three times of his own was leadoff man
Chris Stratton.
Peter Bayer started off the game on the mound for the Broncos and dealt for four innings. Of the 16 batters faced, the senior struck out half of them and allowed just two walks. He also allowed a mere one hit and one earned run to score.
In the bottom half of the first inning, the CPP squad gained their first run as Romo hit a hard grounder to third base that enabled Stratton to score from third on the throw.
In the fifth inning, the Falcons evened it up as a single to the shortstop allowed for a pinch runner to score from third.
The remainder of Bayer's time on the bump remained quiet as neither team was able to gain any more runs. Entering in to pitch in the top half of the fifth inning after Bayer's final batter was Beattie, the newcomer to CPP added five more strikeouts to his season resume through his four innings pitched.
In the bottom half of the fifth, after UTPB posted their run, the Broncos answered right back as Romo secured RBI number two and three. The runs scored as the senior doubled off the fence in left center and allowed
Jared James and Stratton to score.
In the sixth inning, the Falcons' final run of the day would cross the plate as a sacrifice fly to right gave their runner at third enough time to cross the plate. To add an extra security run to the Broncos' then 3-2 lead,
Ryan Webberley would add a sacrifice fly of his own to score Stratton once again and give CPP the final 4-2 score.
In for the home team to close out the game in the ninth was
Zach Williams. He faced four batters, and locked down the Falcons' offense and secured CPP the victory in the contest.
Game Two: Broncos 4- Falcons 0 The second game of the doubleheader featured CPP earning all four of their runs quickly. Securing the win for the Green and Gold was Koval. The junior's performance included 5.2 innings pitched and just three hits allowed. He tallied nine strikeouts and allowed just one single walk. The win was his second thus far this season.
In the bottom half of the first inning, CPP scored all four of its runs. The first was scored as
Nic Hernandez singled to second base with Stratton, James, and
Michael Zidek on base. Each of them advanced and Stratton scored for the fourth time of the day.
A wild pitch from UTPB's pitcher allowed each of the Bronco runners to advance and with that James would score CPP's second run of the contest.
The final two runs for the home town offense would score on a single from
Michael Erb to center field. His single moved Hernandez to third and ZIdek came home after the center fielder missed the ground ball at his feet and secured and error on the fielding attempt. Due to the center fielder's error, Hernandez quickly rounded third and headed home as well, scoring CPP's fourth and final run.
After the four-run fourth, the remainder of the game was quiet as no more runs would score.
Coming in to close out the game for the Broncos in the sixth inning was
Erik Trask. The Arcadia native pitched the final out of the sixth inning and closed out the seventh. No runners reached base as the junior faced just four batters, securing two ground outs and two flyouts.
Looking Ahead The Green and Gold will return to action Sunday as they travel down to La Jolla to challenge the No. 24 UC San Diego Tritons. The UCSD team fell on Saturday with an 8-2 loss to the Coyotes of Cal State San Bernardino and now carries a 5-1 record into Sunday's contest. The game at the Triton Ballpark is set to begin at 2:00 p.m.
