POMONA, Calif. – Cal Poly Pomona baseball split their Saturday doubleheader against Cal State Dominguez Hills at Scolinos Field, going up two to one in the series. The Broncos remain in first place in the conference standings with a 10-5 CCAA record, having three more wins than the next closest school.
Game 1: CPP 6, CSUDH 19
Cal Poly Pomona manufactured an early opportunity in the second inning, as
Diego Murillo lifted a sacrifice fly to bring home the game's first run and give the Broncos a 1-0 lead. After four scoreless frames, the Toros got on the board with a big five-run fifth inning. The Broncos, however, responded immediately with a five spot of their own, punctuated by a grand slam from junior
Julian Angulo to retake a 6-5 lead.
Starting pitcher
Anthony Vasquez navigated traffic across five innings, striking out four and keeping Cal Poly Pomona within striking distance through the middle frames. The Broncos' offense remained patient, tying a season-high eight walks at the plate, but the offense was unable to plate any more runs after the grand slam.
The Cal State Dominguez Hills bats exploded in the final two innings of the game, scoring 12 runs on 10 hits to put the game well out of reach for CPP. The Broncos' 19 runs allowed is their most at Scolinos Field since April 3, 2016.
Game 2: CPP 5, CSUDH 1
After going down 1-0 in the opening frame of the nightcap, Cal Poly Pomona responded immediately with an
Austin Duarte line drive single to left center, scoring
Jack Sanders all the way from first to even the score at 1-1. From there, the Broncos settled into a pitchers' duel behind
Anthony Cosme, who shined in his first start of the season.
Cosme, a sophomore out of Inglewood, struck out 10 Toro batters over six innings while allowing just four hits and one run, tying the most single-game strikeouts by a pitcher in the CCAA this season. Over his past two outings, Cosme has struck out 17 batters in 10.0 innings with just two walks allowed. He stranded traffic in the third and fifth innings, preserving the 1-1 tie and setting the stage for a decisive offensive breakthrough.
That breakthrough came in the fifth, when
Tyler Blade ignited the rally with a leadoff single to left field and a stolen base. After an error and a productive groundout by
Sebastian Arguelles plated the go-ahead run,
Diego Murillo extended the inning with a single.
Daniel Ruiz followed with an RBI knock down the left field line, and Sanders delivered the biggest swing of the night, ripping a two-run double into the right-center gap to cap a four-run inning and push the Broncos in front 5-1.
With the lead secured, the Broncos' bullpen closed the door as
Sean Suriyaniel tossed a clean seventh inning to finish the victory. Cal Poly Pomona executed their game plan perfectly, combining for 11 strikeouts on the mound, playing error-free defense, and cashing in on timely offensive opportunities.
Up Next
The Broncos will look for the series win against the Toros tomorrow, March 29
th, at 12:00 PM.
Bronco Bits
- The Broncos are 138-95 all-time against Cal State Dominguez Hills, including 6-4 in their past 10 games. They are 82-33 at home and 130-89 in conference against the Toros.
- Randy Betten is now 449-311 (.591) as head coach of the Broncos and 318-225 (.586) in CCAA play. Betten is just 12 CCAA wins shy of passing legendary coach John Scolinos for most in program history (329).
- As a program, Cal Poly Pomona is now 1,786-1,596-21 in its 66th season overall, including 959-843-4 in CCAA play.
- The Broncos are first in the CCAA in stolen bases (49) and second in fielding percentage (.975).
- The pitching staff has issued the second-fewest walks in the CCAA this season with 104 while also striking out the most batters (237).
- The Broncos entered the weekend with the 7th toughest strength of schedule in the entire country.
- The Broncos are the first team in the CCAA to 10 conference wins this season.
