AZUSA, Calif. -- Azusa Pacific jumped out to an early lead in a game it needed to win in order to force a winner-take-all championship game against UC San Diego in the NCAA Division II Baseball West Regional Tournament, but against a Tritons team which came from behind in three of its four wins in the tournament, it wasn't quite enough.

The Cougars used three home runs in the first five innings to build a 7-1 lead, but UC San Diego patiently chipped away at the deficit before scoring twice in the bottom of the ninth to clinch the regional championship for the second straight year with an 8-7 win over the Cougars.

Joe Quire, Jr. hit the first of the three Azusa Pacific home runs, a two-run shot in the fourth inning, and Pablo O'Connor and Austin Russ hit home runs in a three-run fifth to extend the lead to 7-1 before the UCSD comeback.

The Cougars took a one-run lead into the ninth inning, but UC San Diego loaded the bases with one out for Nick Kitzmann, who fouled off a 3-2 pitch before drawing a walk which brought the tying run across the plate. Pinch-hitter Michael Palos delivered a single through the Cougars' drawn-in infield, scoring Justin Beck from third for the winning run and a walk-off victory for the Tritons.

Both teams finished with 10 hits, and Quire led the way for Azusa Pacific with a 3-for-3, 2-RBI performance, while Russ added a 2-for-5 afternoon. Zander Clarke and Keenan Brigman each collected two hits to lead the UCSD offense.

What It Means: Azusa Pacific's season ends one step closer, and now just one step away, to the NCAA Division II World Series after advancing to the regional championship. The Cougars finished the season 41-11 overall, notching its second consecutive 40-win season for only the second time in program history (2007-08 was the first) along with two consecutive Pacific West Conference titles and back-to-back NCAA playoff appearances.

How It Happened: On three days' rest from his tournament-opening start, sophomore righthander Nick Estrella gave Azusa Pacific a solid 6.1-inning start. He surrendered four total runs, although only one was earned, on four hits and a pair of walks with eight strikeouts before leaving the game with a 7-4 lead in the seventh inning.

The Cougars got on the board first with Grant Gamble's two-out RBI double in the top of the second, which scored Russ from second base. Quire was thrown out at the plate trying to score from first on the play, and UC San Diego answered in the bottom of the second with Keenan Brigman's RBI single to tie the game at 1-1.

Osvaldo Tovalin delivered a run-scoring two-out single in the top of the third to keep the offense rolling, and Quire turned the 2-1 lead into a 4-1 advantage with a two-run shot to right field for his sixth home run of the year. O'Connor led off the fifth with an opposite-field solo home run, his 17th home run of the season, and two batters later Russ crushed a 1-1 pitch to right field to extend the lead to 7-1.

The Tritons got two runs back on Zander Clarke's two-run, two-out single in the bottom of the fifth, and a two-out error cost the Cougars another run when Kitzmann kept the sixth inning alive after reaching on an error which scored a run that trimmed the margin to 7-4. Estrella teamed up with reliever Spiro Valasakos to keep UC San Diego off the board in the seventh, but Kitzmann and pinch-hitter Steven Schuknecht hit back-to-back solo home runs with two outs in the eighth inning to cut the lead to 7-6 and force the Cougars even deeper into the bullpen.

After Kyle Lucke tossed a scoreless ninth for UC San Diego, the first two Triton batters reached on a hit batsman and a walk from Layne Henderson, who recorded the first out of the frame on a strikeout of Brigman. However, Blake Baumgartner walked to load the bases for Kitzmann, who worked the count full and fouled off a 3-2 pitch before drawing a bases-loaded walk to tie the game. Tripp Aversa went to a 2-2 count on another pinch-hitter, Michael Palos, who played the hero's role for the Tritons with his game-winning single.

What's Next: For UC San Diego, it's an NCAA World Series appearance in Cary, North Carolina, which begins on Saturday, May 26. For Azusa Pacific, the season comes to an end as the Cougars begin the task of replacing 12 seniors from the outstanding 2018 campaign. Azusa Pacific will meet 2018 CCAA regular-season champion and West Region No. 1-seed Cal State Monterey Bay in a season-opening three-game series at home next year.

Postgame Press Conference