POMONA - The Cal Poly Pomona baseball team surrendered two early long balls and fell to Biola University, 12-4, on a cold and drizzly Tuesday night at Scolinos Field in the final game for both area foes before they open their respective conference schedules this Friday.

With the result, CPP dropped to 5-4. Biola, a fellow West Region member located in La Mirada and out of the Pacific West Conference (PacWest), improved to 3-5. The sides will meet once more in Pomona on Tuesday night, March 22.

The guests struck first in their opening half. Freshman left-hander Edrian Rangel looked like he may duck around a leadoff walk to Tyler Baca by getting back-to-back fly-ball outs, but Baca stole second without a throw, and sprinted home when Wyatt Duncan dumped a 1-1 pitch into left field. Evan Rowe followed by roping an opposite-field double to right, but Rangel avoided further damage as Matthew Nyce bounced out.

Biola put the leadoff man on for the second inning in a row, this time through a looping Tyler White single to left. Rangel got Rhett Stein chasing high for his first strikeout, and after White took second on a balk, froze Riley Mitchell with a curveball on the inside corner, and escaped the inning with an easy groundout by Baca.

Ricky Nuñez began the home second by lining the second pitch to left. The ball skipped through Nyce and all the way to the wall, enabling the CPP newcomer to scoot all the way around to third for the first triple by a Bronco in 2022. After AJ Nimeh was plunked, Nick Lugo grounded into a 6-4-3 double play as Nuñez came across for the tying run.

The Eagles came right back and started off the third with a walk and infield single ahead of a three-run home run to left by Duncan. It was the redshirt sophomore first baseman's first collegiate long ball. An RBI double by Stein plated White, who had drawn a two-out walk.

Oscar Serratos Jr. padded the Biola lead further with a two-run blast, also to left, with one gone in the fourth after a leadoff Baca single. It was a team-best fourth home run for the senior, and the 10th by BU this year.

The visitors tacked on three more runs in the fifth, and two in the eighth.

In between, CPP got three runs back in the seventh on back-to-back bases-loaded walks by Ryon Knowles and pinch-hitter Chris Aguilar, followed by a wild pitch, all with two outs.

Rangel (0-2) went 3.0 innings and allowed five runs on six hits and three walks. The Pomona product struck out two. Zuko Tillman fired a perfect seventh. Nuñez was 2-for-3 with his triple and run scored. Johnny Pappas and Jacob Lopez each drew a pair of walks.

Andrew Zittel, like Rangel a freshman left-hander, gave up one run on one hit, two walks and a hit-by-pitch over 2.0 innings in his first collegiate start. He struck out one. Zittel worked around a pair of walks in his initial frame. Tristan Cazel took over for him in the third and used a 4-6-3 double play and a strikeout to offset two more bases on balls. Carson Cody (1-0) retired all four batters he faced, striking out the side in order in the eighth, and was credited with the winning decision.

Neither team could retire the leadoff man in an inning until Biola's third arm of the night, Jeff Woolson, came on for his season debut and fanned Casey Slattery en route to a 1-2-3 fourth.

Duncan went 2-for-5 with the home run, run scored and four RBI. Serratos Jr. finished 4-for-5 with his long ball, a double, three runs and three RBI. Baca was 2-for-4 with a walk, double, three runs, one RBI and a steal. Biola's 12 runs and 17 hits were season highs against CPP.

The Eagles' leadoff batter reached base in each of the first six frames, with four of them scoring. The Broncos did cut down Nyce trying to extend his double into the left field corner to a triple to begin the sixth. Nuñez picked up the ball and fired it to Knowles who had ranged over from second base. He threw to third baseman Tyler Chaffee for the tag.

Having played nine of its 10 scheduled non-conference dates, Cal Poly Pomona is now set for its grueling 40-game California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) slate as the coaches' preseason favorite. The Broncos will make the short trip over for a four-game set at Cal State San Bernardino (4-6), this Friday through Sunday, Feb. 25-27. Friday's series opener at Fiscalini Field has a 6 p.m. first pitch.

All CCAA baseball contests throughout this 2022 season are streaming live online via the CCAA Network at www.ccaanetwork.com. Fans may also download the CCAA Network app on your iOS or Android smartphone, tablet, or through web streaming devices such as Amazon Fire, Roku or Apple TV. The CCAA Network has moved to a subscription-based model at just $9.95 per month. Subscribers have access to all CCAA broadcasts, both live and on-demand.

Bronco Bits: Cal Poly Pomona is 325-204 (.614) under 12th-year head coach Randy Betten ... Biola leads the all-time series dating back to 1999, 12-5-2 ... Tuesday's meeting was the first between these programs in over a decade, since CPP took a 9-3 home decision on Feb. 18, 2009 ... BU was an undefeated 7-0-1 over the previous eight matchups going back through 2003 ... The Broncos are 4-5-2 at home against the Eagles ... Tonight's game was the first for CPP against BU under Betten ... All eight of Biola's games thus far in 2022 have come against CCAA opposition, as the Eagles were swept in three games at Cal State Monterey Bay for openers, and were coming off a four-game split at home with Cal State LA this past weekend ... Edrian Rangel made his third collegiate appearance and second start on the mound ... Tyler Chaffee was back at third base after starting every game there against UCCS and missing the entire MSUB series ... Second-year freshman Luke Watson saw his first action in center field as the starter there after beginning each game of the MSUB series at third base in place of Chaffee ... Johnny Pappas' walk to lead off the home third made him the second Bronco already this season to reach double figures in that category ... Chris Aguilar notched his first walk and RBI in the green and gold in the seventh ... Ten more walks for the Broncos, including four in the seventh, give them a CCAA-best 64 on the year ... Drew D'Ambra notched his first strikeout in the green and gold in the fourth ... AJ Moreno fanned a season-high two ... Matthew Henry registered his first strikeout to record his first out as a Bronco in the eighth ... Henry struck out the side around a two-out single in the ninth ... The Broncos allowed double-digit runs for the first time this year ... CPP is the CCAA coaches' preseason favorite, garnering six of the 11 first-place votes ... Biola is picked to finish third in the nine-team PacWest ... The Broncos were receiving votes outside of the top 40 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper preseason poll, released on Dec. 21.