A wild and whacky day of NCAA playoff baseball resulted in both Pacific West Conference teams advancing at two different sites and in two very different ways.
Westmont rallied for a 3-2 win over San Francisco State at home and will now play CS Monterey Bay on both Friday and Saturday.
Point Loma suffered a 15-6 loss to Montana State Billings to begin a crazy Thursday for them in Idaho, and then pounded No. 1 seed and host Northwest Nazarene, 20-6. They will next play on Friday night against the winner of Friday morning's MSUB-NNU game.
WESTMONT 3, SAN FRANCISCO STATE 2
In the second game of the day in Santa Barbara, Westmont rode the strong starting pitching of
Ryan Humphreys and a seventh inning rally to top the Gators at Russ Carr Field.
The Warriors, playing in their first NCAA postseason game, scored in their half of the first when
Grant Yzermans singled, stole second, advanced to third on the catcher’s throwing error and came home on
Bryce McFeely’s ground ball.
With the way Humphreys started out, there was a chance that one run would be enough. Humphreys, the PacWest Pitcher of the Year, retired the first six batters he faced but then ran into some trouble in the third. SF State scored twice on three hits to take a 2-1 lead and that score would hold until the seventh.
Zach Mora singled to lead off that inning and McFeely promptly doubled him home.
Trey Dunn then followed with an RBI-single to give the lead back to the Warriors (3-2).
Humphreys' day was done with seven full innings, five hits, no walks and a sizzling 11 strikeouts.
Zach Yates came on to close out the next two innings, working around three Gator hits and a walk for the save and Westmont win.
Dunn had three hits in the game to lead the Warriors while McFeely, Mora and
Shane Hofstadler had two hits apiece.
San Francisco State, who had lost earlier in the day to CS Monterey Bay, ended their season at 33-23. Westmont advances to Friday’s match-up against the Otters at 42-12.
MONTANA STATE BILLINGS 15, POINT LOMA 6
The Sea Lions were seemingly cruising with a 3-0 lead in Nampa at Elmer W. Vail Field when the roof caved in.
First, the good news. In the third inning,
Luke Reece’s RBI-single put the Sea Lions on the board first, and they added two more in the fourth on back-to-back doubles by
Noah Meffert and
Tommy Molina, followed by an RBI-single from
Aiden Arriaga.
But in the fifth, the Yellowjackets erupted for seven runs, sending 12 batters to the plate and using five hits and a Sea Lion error. Montana State Billings duplicated the feat in the eighth, chasing another seven runners home with 13 batters involved, again on five hits.
In between, Meffert hit a two-run homer and
Josiah Rodriguez drove in a pair with a single, but the damage had been done.
Point Loma had 13 hits in the game, three by Meffert who drove in two with a double and homer. Reece, Arriaga and
Owen May had two hits each.
POINT LOMA 20, NORTHWEST NAZARENE 6
Facing the end of their season, the Sea Lions rallied in the most emphatic way with their second highest run total of the year.
Point Loma wasted no time, building a 14-0 lead through the first three innings of play, stunning the No. 1 seeded Nighthawks. PLNU homered five times in those first three innings, including two by
Luke Reece. Meffert also went yard in the second as did
Matt Bernath and
Jake Entrekin hit a home out in the third.
The Sea Lions would go on to hit seven homers in the game, with two each by Entrekin, Reece and Meffert and one by Bernath. Reece would have four hits in the onslaught and five RBI, while Meffert drove home seven runs with three hits. Entrekin also had three hits and four RBI.
Perhaps equally important in a playoff series, Point Loma got seven strong innings from starting pitcher
Ray Cebulski, who gave up six hits and four earned runs.
NNU will now play MSUB on Friday, taking a 40-14 record into the game against their GNAC rival. Point Loma improved to 38-17 and will take on the winner of that game at 5 pm PT on Friday night.