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Brent Cota
Will G. MacNeil
4
Cal Poly Pomona CPP 4-2
7
Winner Westmont WC 5-3-1
Cal Poly Pomona CPP
4-2
4
Final
7
Westmont WC
5-3-1
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Cal Poly Pomona CPP 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 4 12 0
Westmont WC 0 0 0 1 3 2 0 1 X 7 9 0

W: Peck, Bryan (2-0) L: Soto, Noel (1-1) S: Holly, Aidan (2)

Game Recap: Baseball | | Alex Kline, Assistant Athletics Director for Communications

Cota Homers Twice, Broncos Suffer First Loss to Warriors

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Junior Brent Cota had a career game on Friday afternoon, hitting two home runs and driving in three of the Broncos' four runs. Cota's 3-for-3 performance improved his batting average nearly a hundred points to .381 on the season, and his three home runs now leads the team to start the 2024 campaign.
 
Catcher Johnny Pappas also collected three hits in the game, raising his average to .313 on the season. Jack Sanders and Jacob Lopez, two of CPP's more potent hitters to start the year, also both reached base multiple times via the hit. Lopez's single in the top of the eighth inning scored Pappas, accounting for the lone Bronco run that didn't involve Cota.
 
Oddly enough, the Broncos have now collected 12 hits in exactly half of their games this season. The team as a whole is batting .273 with 54 hits, the most hits of any team in the CCAA under eight games played this season,  while holding opponents to a .197 batting average.
 
Senior Noel Soto started on the mound for the Broncos, holding them scoreless until the fourth inning. Two home runs in the fifth would allow the Warriors to take a 4-2 lead, one they would hold on to for the remainder of the game. Soto would finish with three strikeouts and six hits allowed in 5.2 innings while taking his first loss in five starts dating back to last season.
 
Ruben Del Castillo entered out of the pen, allowing a home run to the first batter he faced to extend Westmont's lead to 6-2. After pitching a clean frame in seventh, Del Castillo ran into some trouble in the bottom of the eighth. AJ Moreno entered in a bases loaded jam and forced a flyout to centerfield, keeping the Warriors to seven runs.
 
With the 7-4 loss, the Broncos fall to 4-2 on the season and rank fourth in the CCAA with a .667 win percentage.
 
 
Up Next
The Broncos will face the Warriors in a doubleheader tomorrow, February 17th, in Santa Barbara to close out the four-game series.
 
 
Bronco Bits
  • The Broncos are now 2-1 all-time against the Warriors.
  • Randy Betten is now 388-244 (.614) as head coach of the Broncos.
  • The last time the Broncos were 4-2 to start the season was 2022.
  • After not hitting any home runs during the 2023 season, Brent Cota now leads the team with three this season.