POMONA ¾ Cal Poly Pomona’s baseball team seemingly had a doubleheader sweep in its grasp Saturday afternoon. Then the Broncos lost their grip.
Three consecutive errors fueled a six-run Cal State San Bernardino rally in the sixth inning and a seventh-inning three-run home run by Adam Rabusin was the finishing touch on a 12-7 Coyote victory Saturday at Scolinos Field. The Broncos had won the opener, 5-3, behind a strong pitching outing from Kevin Waldinger.
The Coyotes (10-4, 5-2), ranked 18th in the nation, won three out of the four games in the series against the 17th-ranked Broncos (10-5-1, 5-3).
After winning the opening game, the Broncos overcame an early 3-0 deficit and led the Coyotes, 5-3, entering the sixth inning. Andrew Perkins left after five innings and Cal Poly Pomona stopper Ricky Wooten was betrayed by his control and his defense in a nightmarish sixth inning for the Broncos.
Walks to Matt Swaydan and Marcus Wyatt started the inning and the next three Coyote batters reached base on Cal Poly Pomona errors. Rabusin was hit by a pitch to force in a run and Brian Schweiger capped the rally with a sharp two-run single to left, the only hit of the inning for the Coyotes.
The Broncos came back with two runs in the bottom of the sixth on a two-run home run by Anthony Gonzales to cut the deficit to 9-7, but Rabusin’s three-run blast in the seventh inning with two outs put the game out of reach.
Charles Rohr pitched five solid innings for the Coyotes to record the win, while Wooten suffered the loss to drop to 0-1. Wooten leads the Broncos with four saves.
The nightcap was a sloppy game with the two teams combining for 10 errors.
The opener was won by the Broncos, who jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and never faltered. Jason Welch, who leads the Broncos with 17 RBI, had a two-run single to spark the first-inning uprising.
Matt Stevens had three hits and a pair of RBI in the opener for the Broncos, while Waldinger went six strong innings, allowing six hits and only one run. Justin Carty retired one batter in the seventh and then Jose Munoz went the final 2 2/3 innings to record his first save of the season.