AZUSA, Calif. – Azusa Pacific advanced to the NCAA West Regional Championship with a 10-7 win over Point Loma, while California Baptist’s season came to an end with a split against Cal State Monterey Bay and UC San Diego on Saturday at the Cougar Baseball Complex.
The Lancers’ bats exploded in their first elimination game on Saturday, taking out No. 1 seed Cal State Monterey Bay to start the day.
Tommy Bell went 2 for 6 with four RBIs in the victory for the Lancers, while
John Glenn added a 3-for-6 performance with three runs. California Baptist never trailed in the game and
Justin Montgomery got the win in relief with 4.1 innings pitched to close out the victory. He struck out nine of the 19 batters faced and allowed just two runs in the high-scoring affair.
Azusa Pacific led 7-1 after three innings on Saturday, but Point Loma nearly came back to keep the season alive. In the ninth innings,
Tyler Flores blasted a shot to right field for the Sea Lions,
Sean Aspinall made a leaping catch against the wall to help the Cougars preserve their 3-run lead.
Brendan Dixon threw the final 2.1 innings of the game for Azusa Pacific to earn his first career save, not allowing any hits and striking out two.
Osvaldo Tovalin went 3 for 5 with two RBIs in the victory and was one of three Cougars to hit a home run along with
Griffen Herrera and
Aaron Roose. Point Loma’s offense was led by a 2-for-4 performance with two runs by
Adam Rios.
| UC San Diego 5 – California Baptist 3 |
| Box Score |
California Baptist Recap |
Press Conference |
California Baptist’s season came to an end with a second loss in the tournament to UC San Diego, which goes into Monday’s final undefeated in the tournament. The Lancers got a 2-0 lead in the first inning off RBI singles by
Andrew Bash and
Harrison Spohn, but the Tritons answered with three runs over the next two frames.
Jorge Valerio and
Matt Amrhein combined to put five-consecutive zeroes on the board for California Baptist, but the offense couldn’t close the gap. The Tritons added two insurance runs in the top half of the ninth inning before
Billy Rockefeller got a pinch-hit solo home run, which ultimately wasn’t enough for a comeback.