POMONA, Calif. – The Cal Poly Pomona baseball team won their CCAA Tournament quarterfinal game on Thursday, defeating Cal State San Marcos 10-3 to improve to 31-20 on the season. With the win, the No. 3 seed Broncos advance to the CCAA Tournament semifinal game against No. 1 seed Cal State Monterey Bay.
 
Noel Soto came up big for the Green & Gold, delivering 7.1 quality innings to pick up his eighth win of the season. The senior allowed just five base runners in his first six innings of work, none of which reached scoring position. He surrendered a leadoff home run to start the seventh inning, but promptly retired the next three batters in order. The Cougars made some noise in the eighth, scoring two more runs on four hits, but it wasn't nearly enough to cut into CPP's lead. Freshman Anthony Vasquez closed out the ninth, throwing a scoreless inning in his postseason debut while striking out one.
 
The big inning for the Broncos came in the third, where they plated six runners on five hits and batted through the lineup. This started with a leadoff bunt single by Nick Lugo, immediately followed by another bunt single from Beau Betten. Brent Cota then moved the two runners over with a sacrifice bunt to put both in scoring position. Jack Sanders pushed across the first run of the game on a fielder's choice, making the score 1-0. AJ Nimeh then drove in two more with a single to left field, extending the lead to 3-0. A batter later, Darius Price doubled to left center to score two more, and Lugo drove in the final run of the inning with a single to shortstop.
 
The Broncos scored a pair in both the fifth and the eighth innings, the latter coming off back-to-back doubles from Johnny Pappas and Sanders to open the frame. Not surprisingly, Pappas also walked in the game, marking the 101^st of his career to take sole possession of fourth on the CPP all-time list. He is now just nine away from passing Nic Hernandez (2016-19) for third on the all-time list. He also tied Brennan McKenzie for 10^th on the all-time list in runs scored at 128 on Thursday.
 

 
Up Next
The Broncos will play Cal State Monterey Bay on Friday, May 10^th, at 3:00 PM. If they lose, they will immediately play San Francisco State at 7:00 PM in an elimination game. If they win, they will advance to the championship at 2:00 on Saturday.
 
Please note: Pets will not be allowed at Scolinos Field during the tournament.
 
Tournament Central: https://goccaa.org/tournaments/?id=127&path=baseball
Live Stats: https://broncoathletics.com/sidearmstats/baseball/summary
CCAA Network: https://ccaanetwork.com/goccaa/
Tickets: https://goccaa.org/sports/2021/9/3/GEN_0903210215.aspx
 
 
Bronco Bits

• CPP is now 23-6 (.793) all-time against CSUSM dating back to the 2016 season, when the Cougars joined the CCAA.
• CPP is 1-0 all-time against Cal State San Marcos in the CCAA Tournament, as 2024 was their first DII postseason appearance in program history.
• Randy Betten is now 415-262 (.613) as head coach of the Broncos.
• The Broncos have won the CCAA Tournament three times – 2015, 2019, and 2022. That is the second-most in conference history behind Chico State and Sonoma State, each tied with five and both being eliminated from the 2024 tournament in the opening round.