SEASIDE, Calif. – The CSUSB baseball team won a walk-off thriller over Cal Poly Pomona in their first game of the CCAA Tournament on Thursday, extending their program win record to 36 victories. With the win, CSUSB advances to the CCAA Tournament Semifinals against the No. 1 seed, and host of the tournament, Cal State Monterey Bay Otters.
The win was also
Mike Nadeau's 100
th career win as head coach of the Yotes, making him the third head coach in CSUSB baseball history to reach that mark. The 2023 season has been a milestone year for both Nadeau and the program, becoming the winningest team in program history in just the regular season alone.
"The key is recruiting and being able to get these great young men to come play for this program. We have been very lucky and are seeing their hard work and preparation translate to on the field success. We knew we were going to have to build it first, and my coaching staff has done an amazing job finding the talent. We have a great group of young men and I'm very proud of them." - Head Coach Mike Nadeau
The Yotes and Broncos have been worthy opponents of one another all season. In March, the Yotes dropped the series to CPP – their only series loss of the entire regular season. However, they were only outscored 8-7 over all four games, and each of the three CPP wins were by just one run.
Thursday was no different, as it took the two teams going into extra innings to determine a winner.
Austyn Coleman started the game on the mound for CSUSB, going 5.0 innings while allowing four earned runs with 5 strikeouts.
Benny Olguin came in relief, striking out six while allowing two more to score.
John Pfeffer entered in the ninth, not allowing a run in 2.0 innings while striking out four en route to his fourth win of the season.
After falling behind 4-0, the Yotes got on the board in the bottom of the fifth inning with a sacrifice fly by
DeShawn Johnson. The next inning, the Yotes would tack on two more with a two-run single by
Ben Davidson to narrow the lead to 4-3. The Broncos would respond by getting one back in the top of the seventh. Then in the bottom of the fame, the Yotes tied the game on a
Daryl Ruiz solo home run and a
Garrett Macias RBI single, making the score 5-5.
Cal Poly Pomona once again took the lead in the top of the eighth inning on a solo home run, and the Yotes once again responded by scoring one run in the bottom of the inning on a wild pitch to even it back up at 6-6.
In the bottom of the 10
th inning, with bases loaded and two outs, the Yotes' backstop
Garrett Macias stepped up to the plate. On the second of the pitch of the at-bat, he smacked a no-doubt home run to left field for a walk-off grand slam to win by a score of 10-6. With his third grand slam of the season, it's safe to officially nickname Macias as Mr. Slam Bernardino. The Iwakuni, Japan native also finished 3-5 in the game, leading the team in both runs scored at two and RBI at five.
Up Next
The No. 2 seeded Yotes will face the No. 1 seeded Otters in the winner's bracket tomorrow, May 12
th, at 12:00 PM. The winner will advance to the championship on Saturday, while the loser of that game will immediately play again at 3:30 PM. You can purchase tickets
here or catch the action on the CCAA Network at
ccaanetwork.com.
To see the full CSUSB baseball schedule, click HERE.
