STOCKTON, Calif. - No. 7 UC San Diego had its 19-game win streak snapped Saturday as Cal Poly Pomona held on for a 14-12 victory in a California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Tournament game at Klein Family Field.
Top-seeded UCSD (40-13) would have wrapped up the tourney title with a win, but now must play a second game at 6 p.m. against Cal Poly Pomona (33-20), the fourth seed, to determine the champion, which earns an automatic bid into the NCAA postseason. Both teams are 2-1 in Stockton.
The Tritons made a valiant comeback after finding themselves down 13-3 through six and a half innings of play. They plated nine runs over the seventh and eighth innings, but the Broncos shut them down in the ninth to save the win.
The 14 runs were the most UCSD had surrendered since giving up 16 to Cal State L.A. in 2009. It was just the second time this season UCSD allowed an opponent to hit double figures in runs.
The Broncos came out swinging as Jordan Whitman took a 2-2 offering from left-hander Taylor Austin down the left field line and over the wall for a leadoff home run. Austin then hit Ryan Goodman with a pitch and gave up a double to Travis Taijeron, the 2011 CCAA Most Valuable Player. With runners on first and third, Austin got Jenzen Torres swinging for the first out. Chris Miller followed with a two-run single to left, giving CPP a 3-0 lead. The Tritons turned a huge double play on the next at-bat as Austin caught Tyson Edwards looking and Kellen Lee gunned down Miller, who was trying to steal second.
The hits kept coming in the bottom half. Danny Susdorf, who entered the game batting .625 over two tourney contests, led off with a single up the middle off of lefty starter Ryan Dunn. Aaron Bauman also went up the middle for a base knock before Dunn recorded the first out when Nick La Face flew out to center. Blake Tagmyer put UCSD on the scoreboard as he lifted a blooper to shallow left that dropped in, allowing Susdorf to score and Bauman to advance to second. With two on and one out, Dunn hit Kyle Saul with a pitch to load up the bases. Evan Kehoe reached on a fielder's choice, driving in Bauman to get the Tritons within a run at 3-2. Saul was erased from the bases on the fielder's choice, leaving runners at the corners with two outs. Lee ripped a sinking liner into left that was close to dropping, but Stephen Gonzalez hustled in and made a lunging backhanded catch to get Cal Poly Pomona out of the inning.
Austin came alive in the top of the second, recording a 1-2-3 inning on a fly out and two strikeouts.
With two outs, Susdorf reached base again on an infield single. His hard grounder deflected off Dunn's glove on the mound and rolled slowly to Goodman at short, who rushed a throw that was not in time to get the speedy Susdorf. The Tritons called a hit and run with Bauman at the plate and the outfielder dropped a ball into right for an RBI double that scored Susdorf from first, knotting the game at 3-3. Unfortunately, Bauman was thrown out at third trying to stretch for a triple to end the inning.
Austin put away the first two batters he faced in the third on groundouts before Taijeron singled through the left side of the infield for his second hit in as many at-bats. He was stranded there as a fly ball to right was easily handled by Saul.
Cal Poly Pomona replaced Dunn with Michael Parker in the bottom of the third. Parker efficiently went 1-2-3 with three groundouts. He made a nice play on a hard ground ball by Saul that caromed off his glove and ended up about 10 feet away from him. He scurried over to the ball and quickly got a throw off to first that barely got Saul for the third out.
The Broncos, who hit a tournament record 10 doubles in a win over Chico State Thursday night, hit back-to-back two baggers to start the fourth. Miller cracked one off the wall in left-center and Edwards laid one just inside the right field line to score Miller and put CPP back up by a score of 4-3. After a ground out, Edwards advanced to third base on wild pitch by Austin and scored on the next play when Tovalin recorded the Broncos' fourth double of the day. His ball landed in just about the same spot down the right field line that Edwards' did. Allen Rodarte, the No. 9 hitter, gave Pomona a 7-3 lead as he torched a 1-2 pitch to left for a two-run home run, his first of the season. The blast knocked Austin out of the game and he was relieved by right-hander Justin Burns. Whitman drew a one out walk after taking Burns to a full count and Goodman singled to right. Still with just one out and Broncos at first and second, Taijeron walked on four straight pitches to load the bags for Torres, who drove in Whitman on a fielder's choice. Second baseman Matt Hubbard fielded the ball and flipped it to shortstop Garrett Tuck to get Taijeron at second. Hubbard was involved in the next play as well as the Broncos batted around. Miller rolled one out to him that was bobbled. Hubbard had to hurry his throw, which went over Tagmyer's head, allowing Goodman to score the Broncos' sixth run of the inning. Miller was credited with an RBI single, his third hit of the afternoon. Edwards put a charge into the ball during his at-bat, but Saul backed up and made the catch to finally put an end to the inning, Cal Poly Pomona leading 9-3.
The Tritons kept the extra base hits coming as Kehoe led off with a double just inside the right field line. Parker struck out Lee and retired Hubbard on a chopper to third and Tuck on a chopper to short to strand Kehoe on second.
Gonzalez singled up the middle past a diving Tuck to start the fifth. Tovalin hit another well-placed ball down the line in right for a single, moving Gonzalez up to second. Rodarte took Burns to 3-0 and walked two pitches later to plug the bases again, this time with no outs. The runners went station to station when Whitman singled through the left side, Gonzalez scoring the Broncos' 10th run. UCSD got the first out of the inning as Goodman weakly popped up to third. Taijeron picked up his first RBI of the game on a deep sac fly to left that backed Bauman up all the way to the warning track. All three runners moved up with Tovalin crossing the plate to move the score to 11-3 in favor of CPP. Torres then tapped one back to Burns for the third out.
Susdorf, who's posted multiple hits in nine of his last 11 games, struck out looking and Bauman grounded out to first in the bottom of the fifth. Parker got his third K when he sat down La Face looking, freezing him with a third-pitch fastball.
Burns came right back to strike out Miller looking for a quick first out in the top of the sixth. Edwards put a ball deep to right, but Saul got back and made a great catch against the wall for the second out. The next play was much easier as Gonzalez lifted a ball to Saul, who barely had to move this time for the out.
Tagmyer took first when he was hit on the leg by Parker's first pitch, but Saul grounded into a 5-4-3 double play, just the third time he's done that in 52 games played this season. Kehoe singled up the middle, but Lee grounded out to third to end the frame.
With one out in the top of the seventh, Rodarte took first on an infield error and Whitman walked on five pitches. A perfect push bunt towards third base and a head first slide gave Goodman an infield single and the bases were packed with Broncos once again. Burns fanned Taijeron for the crucial second out, but Torres ripped a two-run single to left over the outstretched arm of Kehoe, scoring Rodarte and Whitman. Burns got out of the inning with no more damage by striking out Miller on four pitches.
UCSD got four runs back in the bottom of the seventh to make the score 13-7. With one out, Tuck reached on a fielding error before Susdorf homered down the left field line, his third dong of the tournament. Bauman was then hit by a Parker pitch and La Face doubled off of Tovalin's glove at third base. With runners on second and third, Tagmyer chopped a ball down the first base line that made it through to right field, scoring both Bauman and La Face. Saul popped up to second for the second out. Kehoe came to the plate and absolutely crushed a foul ball to left before flying out to right.
Eric Abraham took the mound for UCSD in the eighth and was greeted by Edwards, who homered to right on a 3-2 pitch. The next batter flew out and then Tovalin doubled to left, his second deuce of the game. He moved up to third on a ground ball out, but stayed put when Abraham got Whitman swinging.
Michael Benton, who came in to replace Lee at catcher in the top of the seventh, led off UCSD's half of the eighth with a walk. After falling behind in the count, Hubbard worked Parker to 3-2 before he singled to center. That was the end of the day for Parker, who was replaced by Jake Reed. UCSD countered by bringing in K.C. Rentfro to pinch hit for Tuck. Rentfro came in with just one at-bat since April 23. After battling to a full count on seven pitches, Reed drilled Rentfro in the upper arm with the eighth to load the bases. Susdorf knocked in Benton and Hubbard with his fourth hit, a single to center, making the score 14-9, still with no outs. The first out came as Reed struck out Bauman swinging. La Face then singled to shortstop, loading up the bases once more. Goodman made a nice diving stop on La Face's ball and then a solid throw from his knees, but Susdorf got to the bag just in time. A single by Tagmyer allowed Rentfro and Susdorf to score, getting the Tritons back within striking distance at 14-11. Reed was removed from the game and was replaced by Erick Ruvalcaba, who took the loss in Thursday's first round game against UCSD. Saul was first-pitch swinging and he flew out to left for the second out. La Face came in to score on a passed ball when a Ruvalcaba pitch to Kehoe got by Torres. The long inning came to an end as Kehoe grounded out to short.
Closer Elias Tuma entered the game in the top of the ninth and recorded three quick outs, getting Goodman to ground out and Taijeron and Torres to fly out.
In the second half of the ninth, Ruvalcaba struck out Benton looking on four pitches and retired Hubbard on a ground ball to second. Pinch hitter Nick Hom went down 0-2 in the count before grounding out to short to end the game.
Parker improved to 2-2 with the win and it was Ruvalcaba's first save. The Broncos out-hit the Tritons 17-14 as Miller and Tovalin finished with three hits each. Four others had a pair of hits. Miller, Tovalin and Torres all drove in three runs.
Austin took the loss and dropped to 2-1. He gave up seven runs on eight hits over 3.1 innings, striking out four and walked none. Susdorf, who's now batting just under .700 in the tournament, was 4-for-5 with four runs scored and four RBI. Tagmyer had three hits and five RBI, one short of his career-high.
The game lasted three hours and 24 minutes, exactly one hour shorter than UCSD's win over Chico State on Friday.
Greg Selarz will start for UCSD and Casey Yokubaitis will take the mound for Cal Poly Pomona in the tournament's final game.
- ucsdtritons.com -
