WALNUT, Calif. – In front of a standing-room only crowd of 719 on Saturday night, the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos defeated the Azusa Pacific Cougars 6-2. The win moves the Green and Gold into the NCAA Division II West Region Championship game on Monday at 3 p.m.
 
That championship game will be played against Monday's early winner as there is a game featuring the UC San Diego Tritons and the APU squad at 11 a.m. The regional event, hosted by the Broncos at Mazmanian Field on the campus of Mt. SAC, started with six teams but is now down to three squads remaining.

"They've always played their best when their backs are against the wall," head coach Randy Betten said. "Our backs were against the wall both games, but we came out on top."
 
The win improves CPP to a season tally of 42 wins and 15 losses. Starting for the Broncos and earning the win, his fourth of the year, was Michael Koval. He went a career high 7.2 innings and in the process struck out four Cougar batters, all while making just his second career start.
 
Early on Saturday, CPP eliminated Cal Baptist in a 6-4 win. In the Broncos' second game of the day, bats came alive once again. The Green and Gold squad recorded a total of 12 hits in the contest en route to giving the Cougars their first loss of the West Regional.
 
Defeating the APU team was no easy feat, considering the Cougars' first two games of the weekend saw them post a total of 31 runs on the way to a pair of wins. They bested UC San Diego 17-11 on Thursday and California Baptist 14-5 on Friday.
 
Coming in for the Broncos on the mound after Koval was J.J. Franklin. The CPP pitcher made his 19th appearance of the year and went two-thirds of an inning, not allowing any runs to score and leaving the Broncos in a good place defensively as Max Bethell finished off the Cougar offense. Bethell, a team captain, needed just the final two outs of the game and secured both as he got a flyout to Kyle Garlick in centerfield and struck out the final APU batter.

The Cougars were first on the board at Mazmanian Field, but the CPP squad came right back with a homerun by Matt Muñoz. Munoz was 2-for-5 on the day for the Green and Gold, complete with two runs batted in and a run scored himself. He proved himself a force to be reckoned with on the Broncos and helped the CPP offense immensely. 

Before any Cougars runs could score, Christian Kelley would come in clutch with a single to right center that drove in a pair of Bronco runners, Jacob Bernardy and Ryan Webberley.

APU's stellar offense was able to get one more run in the game, but it proved to be their last with a poorly timed fielding error in the CPP infield.

Mike Philp came up and despite struggling at the plate thus far in the regional, sent a long double to the right center gap and gave CPP a three-run advantage. Scoring on the knock was Webberley and Michael Zidek. The final run of the night for either side came yet again at the hands of Munoz. A single to right center tacked the sixth run to the board and gave the game its final result.

Monday, May 18 at Mt. SAC
11 a.m. - #5 UC San Diego vs. #2 Azusa Pacific
3 pm - #1 Cal Poly Pomona vs. UCSD/APU Winner

Winner of the 3 p.m. game will play the South Regional champion - University of Tampa - at 2 p.m. Pacific (5 p.m. Eastern) on Sunday, May 24 in Cary, N.C. at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.