Azusa Pacific won their second straight NCAA Division II playoff game with a 14-5 decision against rival California Baptist. 

With the victory the Cougars are in an excellent spot among the five teams still vying for the regional title. Azusa Pacific is the only undefeated team left in the double elimination tournament. They will face the winner of the California Baptist/Cal Poly Pomona game tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. California Baptist and Cal Poly Pomona play at 11 a.m.

"California Baptist is a great club and our guys did a great job making contact at the plate today," head coach Paul Svagdis said. "It's always good to win. At the end of the day every team here is a good team so we just have to take it one game at a time." 

At the plate Azusa Pacific had their 27th game with 10 or more hits. Just a night after recording 15 hits, the Cougars recorded a 17-hit attack. In their first two regional games, Azusa Pacific has scored 31 runs and collected 32 hits. 

Pablo O'Connor pieced together a 3-for-4 effort with five RBI while crossing the plate three times. The freshman fell a double short of the cycle. Mitch Dergazarian went 3-for-5 with three runs scored while driving home an additional two. Blake James also had a three hit contest for the number two hole in the line-up.

After California Baptist got on the scoreboard with a wild pitch in the first inning, a Jordan Brower sacrifice fly scored Dergazarian to tie the score after the first frame. The Cougars grabbed an early lead in the next inning when a Dergazarian single scored Brian Magana and Michael Staudinger. James followed with a base knock to plate Dergazarian. The Lancers went to the bullpen early as they pulled starting pitcher Tyson Miller after 53 pitches in favor of lefthander Stephen Carabajal. 

In the third inning O'Connor hit his fifth homerun of the year with a one-out big fly to left centerfield. The offensive onslaught continued in the fourth inning, Dergazarian started the stanza's scoring as he crossed the plate on a single by Daniel Martin. Martin came around to score on a base hit by Ryan Santana. The line-up kept things rolling when an O'Connor single scored Santana. The scoring concluded in the inning when Staudinger drove-in Santana for his 15th RBI of the year on a double to rightfield. Azusa Pacific held a comfortable 9-1 lead.

California Baptist made things interesting in the fifth inning when Antonio Chavarria lifted a two-out, three-run homerun down the rightfield line on a full-count. Just one-out away from being in-line for the win, it was the last pitch for Cougar starting pitcher Jonny Reid. In just his second start, Reid struck out four but walked eight in his 106-pitch effort.

The Lancer bullpen was able to keep Azusa Pacific off the scoreboard in the fifth and sixth innings but in the seventh Adrian Tovalin made it a 10-4 contest with an RBI single up the middle which scored O'Connor. 

In the eighth inning the Cougars completed their scoring with a four spot in the frame. O'Connor highlighted the inning with a three-run triple. O'Connor came around to score the final run for Azusa Pacific on a Staudinger base hit.