Sea Lions celebrate what will be their third trip to Cary, NC in the last five years. (photo by Jose Garcia)
Sea Lions celebrate what will be their third trip to Cary, NC in the last five years. (photo by Jose Garcia)

Baseball

Sea Lions Clinch Trip to Cary!!!

Point Loma will head to the NCAA College World Series for the third time in five years with their two-game sweep of Northwest Nazarene.

SAN DIEGO.—Point Loma’s late inning heroics led the Sea Lions to a 6-3 win over Northwest Nazarene in the NCAA West Super Regional on Friday afternoon at Carroll B. Land Stadium.

That win sends Point Loma to the NCAA Division II College World Series for the third time in the last five years. The Sea Lions also earned the berth with the West Region trophy in 2022 and 2024.

This year, they defeated the team that eliminated them a year ago in the Nighthawks—who would go on to reach the NCAA 2025 semifinals in Cary, North Carolina.

Today, Point Loma scored three runs in the eighth inning and two more in the ninth to rally back for the 6-3 win. 

Earlier, NNU got on the board first with a home run from Kaleb Karpstein. Playing as the visitor on the scoreboard, Point Loma would answer with a homer from Aiden Arriaga to tie the game at 1-1.

That’s the way the score would stay until Karpstein hit another round tripper to make it 2-1, Nighthawks in the sixth. NNU was then just six outs away from forcing a “if necessary” game, but Point Loma squashed those thoughts with late inning numbers.

Mason Cook started the scoring in the eighth with a solo home run. After an Arriaga single, Tristan Moore dashed a two-run single to make it 4-2.

NNU would add a run in the bottom half of the inning to make it 4-3, but the Sea Lions added insurance in the ninth with Ryan Rudd’s single and a clinching 4-bagger by Jack Ryan.

In the ninth, Hank Smith added to his two-inning save by striking out the first Nighthawk and the last to end the game. It was Smith’s ninth save of the season. He allowed just one hit in his two innings of work.

Earlier Devin Norton was outstanding as the starter. Norton gave up just three hits and three runs in seven innings of work, and he fanned nine. He threw 101 pitches before being relieved by Smith, improving to 10-2 on the season.

Moore had three hits for the Sea Lions, while Cook and Arriaga had two each.

Point Loma heads to Cary and the USA Baseball Complex with a 49-11 record. Northwest Nazarene, the Great Northwest Athletic Conference champ, ends 2026 at 41-18.