POMONA, Calif. – It isn't over till the walk off homer is hit. Maybe that's not exactly how the saying goes, but that's how it went on Wednesday night as the Cal Poly Pomona baseball team topped the Azusa Pacific Cougars 1-0 after a ninth-inning walk off homerun from
Nic Hernandez.
The win improves the Broncos to an 8-3 record heading into California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) play, which will begin on Saturday at San Francisco State. The loss for the APU squad was their ninth of the season as they now carry a 4-9 record.
It was a staff day for both squads at Scolinos Field as the visiting Cougars totaled four pitchers and the hometown Broncos threw seven. Leading off for the Green and Gold on the bump and dealing for 3.1 innings was
Ryan Alsworth. The sophomore allowed just two hits and struck out four of the 12 batters faced.
After Alsworth, the Green and Gold turned the ball over the
Kohto Hasegawa. The Irvine native closed out the fourth inning as he got a strikeout and a walk. The walked batter then attempted to steal second but was thrown out by the Broncos' catcher
Cody Martin.
The next few innings saw three pitchers for the Green and Gold. Starting off the fifth was
Matthew Grier who faced just one batter but secured the out. After Grier was
Erik Trask to close out the final two batters.
After Trask,
Peter Bayer pitched for the sixth and seventh, racking up five strikeouts in eight batters.
Zach Williams then jumped in for the eighth and faced just four batters but kept them hitless. Then closing out the game for the Broncos and securing the win in the contest due to Hernandez' homer was
Max Bethell. The CPP captain struck out one and gave up just a single hit in the ninth before shutting down the APU offense.
Five members of the CPP offense recorded a hit in the contest. In the first inning, the Broncos' leadoff man
Chris Stratton singled up the middle. Another single up the middle came in the fifth for
Michael Erb. In the sixth,
Jared James did the same thing. Then in the eighth
Jacob Bernardy singled through the right side to reach safely.
James' single increased his consecutive-games-with-a-hit streak and reached-base-safely streak. He increased his number to nine straight games with a hit and 11 straight games that he reached safely.
Then came the ninth inning.
Caleb Romo grounded out to third after battling to a full count, then Hernandez stepped to the plate and fought his way to a full count as well before sending a beauty of a shot over the Scolinos Field markings on the right-center field fence. It was his third homerun of the season and the Broncos' first walk off.
CPP will play the Gators first at 11 am on Saturday before playing the second game of the double header soon after. The Broncos and SFSU will then play the CCAA-Opening series finale on Sunday with an 11 am start.
