SAN DIEGO - Cal Poly Pomona put six zeroes up on the scoreboard, but a pair of crooked numbers in the fourth and sixth were enough for third-ranked top seed Point Loma Nazarene University in a 7-2 decision Thursday at the 2022 NCAA Baseball Championship West Regional.

The three-team West #1 sub-regional is being held on the Point Loma campus at Carroll B. Land Stadium, also known as America's Most Scenic Ballpark.

With a second loss on the day, fifth-seeded CPP wraps up a stellar 2022 season at 35-19. A sixth successive win moves Point Loma to 44-7 overall and 23-3 at home. The 44 victories are a new Pacific West Conference (PacWest) record. The Sea Lions, who boast the best winning percentage (.863) in Division II, advance to a best-of-three series with No. 4 seed Northwest Nazarene beginning Friday at 11 a.m., to determine who moves on to next week's West Super Regional. The Nighthawks had rallied past the Broncos, 10-7, earlier Thursday.

CPP was the automatic entrant out of the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA), as it earned a third CCAA Tournament title in school history, and second straight, last Saturday in Chico. Point Loma is likewise an automatic qualifier as the first-time PacWest regular-season champion. That league does not have a postseason tournament.

The result marked the likely end of the college careers of 10 outstanding senior student-athletes in Drew Atherton, Ryon Knowles, Cesar Lopez, Ricky Nuñez, Matt Orozco, Dante Palacio, Eric Romo, Casey Slattery, Connor Tousignant and Bryce Wooldridge. A number of them have eligibility left with extra years granted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and could opt to return, but that group was recognized on Senior Day.

Neither team had a runner reach second base over the first three innings. Then to lead off the fourth, Nuñez lifted the first pitch of his second at-bat, with one away, out beyond the left field wall for his seventh home run to tie him for the team lead.

Point Loma leveled matters in the home half, and then some. Otto Kemp beat out an infield single for starters and moved to second on a right-sided groundout. Following a walk, starting pitcher Baxter Halligan slid an RBI single up the middle. Sophomore rightfielder Hunter Otjen followed with his eighth home run of 2022, an opposite-field, three-run shot to right, to open up a 4-1 lead. The Sea Lions went on to load the bases on two walks around a hit-by-pitch, still with just one away, but Atherton induced a third double play, 4-6-3, to end the inning.

CPP inched a run closer in the fifth thanks to a one-out, hot-shot single through the right side by AJ Nimeh, and a roped two-out RBI double into the right field corner by Knowles.

Atherton turned in a 1-2-3 fifth, getting a nice play from Tyler Chaffee at third for the first out and a catch deep in center by Nimeh for the second.

Cesar Lopez opened the sixth by singling to the opposite field through the left side for his second hit of the game, third of the day, and milestone 200th of his illustrious five-year CPP career. The Downey native became the first Bronco to reach the mark since former teammate Nic Hernandez in 2019. Two ground balls ended that inning.

A double down the left field line by Halligan led off the home sixth and ended Atherton's outing. The two-way standout, named Monday as both the PacWest Player of the Year and PacWest Pitcher of the Year, advanced to third on Otjen's right-sided groundout, and scored on Easton Waterman's double off the base of the wall in left. Two tosses later, Jack Malone's fifth long ball of the year to center made it 7-2. Knowles made a spectacular diving play to his left for the second out.

Atherton (2-3) went 5.0 innings and surrendered five runs on five hits, a hit-by-pitch and four walks. The fifth-year right-hander struck out none. Atherton cleaned up a one-out walk in the first by dialing up an around-the-horn 5-4-3 double play off the bat of PacWest Freshman of the Year Jakob Christian He then got Waterman to ground into an easy 4-3 twin killing to Knowles to end the second after a leadoff single. The La Crescenta product drew up a six-pitch, three-groundout third that began with a first-pitch 3-1 putout and ended with him handling a comebacker.

Fellow senior right-handers Tousignant and then Orozco each retired the lone batter they faced to end the eighth, the latter via swinging strikeout.

Nuñez wound up 1-for-3 with a home run, run and RBI. Cesar Lopez was 2-for-4. Knowles went 1-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Sea Lion leftfielder Izayah Alvarez made a stellar, diving catch up against the foul line in left in his final at-bat.

Halligan (12-2) was as advertised, earning his single-season PacWest record 12th winning decision while providing three hits. The fifth-year senior left-hander gave up two runs on six hits and no walks over 6.0 frames. He struck out five to give him 101 on the season. Halligan punched out two in each of the first two innings, adding a deep flyout for a 1-2-3 second. The product of Pacific City, Ore., went 3-for-4 at the plate with a double, two runs and an RBI. Fellow southpaw Zachary Veen came on for a nine-pitch, 1-2-3 seventh, and was also flawless in the eighth and ninth to pick up the perfect three-frame save, his fifth.

Click HERE for CPP's postgame press conference with Knowles, Cesar Lopez and head coach Randy Betten, and HERE to access West Region #1 Tournament Central.

Bronco Bits: Cal Poly Pomona is 355-219 (.618) overall and 18-15 (.545) after its seventh NCAA Championship appearance under 12th-year head coach Randy Betten ... CPP finished 12-13 away from home in 2022, 9-12 in true road games, 0-3 against PacWest clubs, and 20-5 across April and May ... Drew Atherton had made 11 starts among 20 appearances prior to this season, and drew his eighth straight start to close out 2022 after four relief stints ... Betten posted the same batting lineup for the ninth consecutive contest ... Ryon Knowles led off for the ninth game in a row and 13th time in 2022 ... Knowles' fifth-inning double was his second of the day, 15th this season and 36th of his Bronco career, and extended his reached-base streak to 26 games ... Knowles' RBI on that fifth-inning double gave him exactly 100 as a Bronco ... Nick Lugo's reached-base streak was snapped at 22 games ... CPP, which entered Thursday tied for sixth nationally in walks, failed to draw a base on balls for just the third time in 2022, and finished with a CCAA-leading 294 ... After its 14th all-time NCAA Championship appearance, CPP is 50-30 overall, 29-21 in West Regional action, 4-9 in road dates, 1-1 against PLNU, 5-7 against PacWest sides, and 0-2 at Carroll B. Land Stadium ... CPP leads 13-7 in the all-time series that goes back to 1994, with three straight defeats (9-4 in San Diego) ... CPP is 9-5 all-time at Carroll B. Land Stadium, with the first 12 games prior to Thursday also all against Point Loma (seven straight wins there entering Thursday, going back to 1996), and 3-2 there with Betten in charge ... CPP entered Collegiate Baseball's top 30 Monday morning for the first time this season, at No. 27 ... The Broncos' record as a top-30 team under Betten is 117-64 ... First-year CPP assistant coach Justin Beck was the starting second baseman on the 2018 College World Series UC San Diego club for which fourth-year Point Loma skipper and PacWest Coach of the Year Justin James was the pitching coach ... All 11 of Betten's on-the-field seasons have ended with winning records.

2022 NCAA BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP - WEST REGION #1
HOSTED BY POINT LOMA - SAN DIEGO

SCHEDULE
THURSDAY, MAY 19
Game 1 - #4 Northwest Nazarene 10, #5 Cal Poly Pomona 7
Game 2 - #1 Point Loma 7, #5 Cal Poly Pomona 2 (Cal Poly Pomona eliminated)

FRIDAY, MAY 20
Game 3 - #1 Point Loma 7, #4 Northwest Nazarene 4
Game 4 - #1 Point Loma 21, #4 Northwest Nazarene 5 (Northwest Nazarene eliminated)

2022 NCAA BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP - WEST REGION #2
HOSTED BY AZUSA PACIFIC - AZUSA, CA

SCHEDULE
THURSDAY, MAY 19
Game 1 - #3 Cal State Monterey Bay 6, #6 Western Oregon 3
Game 2 - #2 Azusa Pacific 10, #6 Western Oregon 6 (Western Oregon eliminated)

FRIDAY, MAY 20
Game 3 - #3 Cal State Monterey Bay 15, #2 Azusa Pacific 8
Game 4 - #2 Azusa Pacific 6, #3 Cal State Monterey Bay 5

SATURDAY, MAY 21
Game 5 - #2 Azusa Pacific 12, #3 Cal State Monterey Bay 9 (Cal State Monterey Bay eliminated)

2022 NCAA BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP - WEST SUPER REGIONAL
HOSTED BY POINT LOMA - SAN DIEGO - MAY 27-28
#1 Point Loma vs. #2 Azusa Pacific (best-of-three series)