SEASIDE, Calif. – The CSUSB baseball team is headed to its first CCAA championship game since 2002, which also happens to be the only time they've ever won the tournament. Back then, they did not have automatic qualifiers for the team that won their conference tournament, which is why the 2002 team wasn't selected to compete in the NCAA Tournament despite winning the conference tournament title. So this year's team has the opportunity to not only break a 21-year conference championship drought, but also secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history.
 

Recap from the CCAA:
Cal State San Bernardino defeated Cal Poly Pomona for the second time in as many days to set up a matchup between the 2023 CCAA Baseball Tournament's top two seeds for Saturday's championship game. The Yotes won Friday's nightcap over the Broncos 12-5.
 
From the first pitch, the Yotes came out swinging. They put three runs in the first, highlighted by a two-run homer from Danny Garcia to cap the inning. CSUSB continued to tack on runs in each of the next three innings.
 
Garcia hit his second home run of the game, and he was one of three Yotes to leave the yard in the third inning as CSUSB extended its lead to 6-1. DeShawn Johnson hit home runs in back-to-back innings to add to the lead. He started the third inning scoring with a deep home run that reached the adjacent soccer stadium. He added another in the fourth to push the lead to 7-1.
 
Another two-out rally produced three more runs in the fifth as the Yotes went up 10-1.
 
Cal Poly Pomona chipped away at the lead with two in their half of the fifth and then threatened in the bottom of the eighth as the Broncos loaded the bases with no out. A bases loaded walk brought in the first run of the inning, but coach Mike Nadeau went to his bullpen for Andres Quinones, who escaped the jam by giving up only one run on an RBI groundout.
 
Quinones and starter Luke Hempel gave CSUSB nine combined innings of three-run ball (one earned). Hempel went the first seven innings allowing six hits and three runs (one earned). He walked two and struck out six to improve to 7-3 on the season.
 

 

Up Next
The Yotes will face the Otters tomorrow, May 13^th, in the championship game at 12:00 PM. Since it is still double elimination format, the Yotes will need to defeat CSUMB twice in order to win the conference tournament title. The second game would take place approximately 30 minutes after the first game. 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.

  Read Full Article