POMONA -- Senior centerfielder Johnnie Haas knocked in what proved to be the winning run in the top of the ninth Thursday as Cal State San Bernardino defeated rival Cal Poly Pomona, 6-5, in the opening game of their four-game CCAA conference series.
    The victory improved the Coyotes to 12-8 in the conference and 17-13 overall while the Broncos are now 9-12 in the CCAA and 16-15 overall. The two teams will meet at 3 p.m.  Friday at Scolinos Field at Cal Poly before closing out the series with a noon doubleheader on Saturday in San Bernardino.
    Ian 0'Connor came out of the Coyotes bullpen to earn his fourth save of the season and junior right-hander Daniel Stenavich improved to 3-0 on the season with seven-plus innings of work, yielding just one Broncos run through seven frames.
    CPP took a 1-0 lead in the first on a run-scoring double by Chris Brehm, but the Coyotes took advantage of Bronco miscues to score three unearned runs in the fourth. Cody Madison reached base when freshman third baseman Jenzen Torres' throw to first was wild allowing Jesus Beltran and Jordan Lowe to score. Joe Villa tried to get Madison motoring into third on the play but the throw was off line and Madison scored on the error.
     CSUSB added two more runs in the eighth for a 5-1 advantage. After Kyle Davis was hit by a pitch he advanced to second on a sacrifice by Haas and came home on Beltran's single. Jordan Lowe was hit by a pitch, moving Beltran to second and  Beltran scored on a single by Madison to make it 5-1.
    However, Cal Poly closed the gap to 5-4 in the bottom of the eighth on Richard McDowell's three-run homer off Stenavich, forcing the Coyotes to bring in Chad Borowski from the bullpen to put out the fire.
    Haas' run-scoring single produced the insurance run the Coyotes needed, driving in catcher Chris Olsen who had walked and advanced to second on a single by Davis, setting up Haas for his game-winning single.
   In the bottom of the ninth, Brehm doubled to score Dylan Cohen and the Broncos had runners at second and third with one out. Torres was intentionally walked to load the bases, but  O'Connor struck out McDowell  and Jeff Ringholm flied out to center to end the game, leaving three runners stranded.
    Davis, Haas, Beltran and Lowe each had two hits for the Coyotes in their 10-hit attack. Brehm, Nick Tanos and McDowell had two hits apiece for the Broncos. Geoff Broussard (1-1) took the loss for CPP, going seven innings and giving up four runs, just one earned.