AZUSA, Calif. -- Exactly one year to the day of its first Pacific West Conference baseball championship, NCAA Division II's No. 3-ranked Azusa Pacific successfully defended its title with a 15-11 victory over conference runner-up Point Loma in the final game of the regular season Wednesday afternoon.
The Cougars needed a split of this week's four-game series with second-place Point Loma, and they did it the hard way by winning back-to-back games against the PacWest's hottest team after the Sea Lions claimed the first two games of the series to extend its winning streak to 16 games. With Wednesday's win, Azusa Pacific claimed its second consecutive conference championship on the anniversary of its first title.
Despite taking an early double-digit lead, Azusa Pacific's repeat championship was no easy task. After the Cougars scored eight runs in the third inning to take an 11-1 lead, the Sea Lions scored in four of the next five frames, including a six-run seventh which closed the gap to 14-11 with no outs in the top of the seventh inning.
Freshman Brendan Dixon and senior Spiro Valasakos combined for the final nine outs to preserve the win, and senior leftfielder Pablo O'Connor's solo home run in the bottom of the seventh provided a key insurance run while halting Point Loma's momentum down the stretch.
The teams combined for 10 home runs, hitting five each, as O'Connor led the way with two home runs to give him 15 on the season. Steven Garrett, Joseph Quire, Jr., and Sean Aspinall hit the other home runs for Azusa Pacific, which scored 15 runs on 15 hits in the victory after scoring 10 runs on three home runs in Tuesday's seven-inning victory over PLNU.
With the win, Azusa Pacific finishes the regular season 39-9 overall and 29-9 in the PacWest, while Point Loma finishes 33-16 overall and 29-11 in PacWest play. The conference title was determined by winning percentage in conference play because Azusa Pacific's April 10 doubleheader rainout at Hawai'i Hilo could not be made up.
What It Means: Azusa Pacific's second consecutive PacWest title is the program's 13th overall conference championship, as the Cougars won 11 Golden State Athletic Conference championships as an NAIA program before transitioning to NCAA Division II beginning with the 2013 season. The victory secures Azusa Pacific's place in the upcoming NCAA Division II West Regional Tournament, which will take place May 17-21 at a site to be announced on Sunday night.
How It Happened: Starting pitcher Nick Estrella struck out four batters in the first two innings to allow the Cougar offense a head start in what turned out to be an offensive showcase between two of the PacWest's most powerful offenses.
After sliding into the leadoff spot for the seven-inning second game of Tuesday's doubleheader, junior catcher Justin Gomez set the table for the offense again with a 2-for-4 performance in his second game as the leadoff hitter. He was one of five Cougars with at least two hits, as O'Connor and Aspinall each went 3-for-4 while batting second and third in the lineup behind Gomez. Freshman third baseman Osvaldo Tovalin was 2-for-5, and senior designated hitter Tim Lichty was 2-for-4 after replacing Steven Garrett, who homered in his only at-bat of the game.
The Cougars converted a one-out walk to O'Connor in the first inning into the opening run of the game on Aspinall's sacrifice fly to left field. An inning later, with two outs in the second, Garrett lined an 0-1 pitch over the left-field fence for a two-run home run that pushed the lead to 3-0.
After Point Loma manufactured a run in the third, O'Connor led off the bottom of the third by beating out an infield single. Two pitches later, Aspinall hit a two-run home run off PLNU starter Stephen Young to spark the Cougars' eight-run outburst. Azusa Pacific scored the next six runs with two outs in the third off two different relief pitchers. Lichty's RBI single to right-center was followed by Quire's three-run blast to right-center, making it 9-1, and O'Connor punished PLNU for a two-out walk to Gomez by driving a 2-2 pitch over the right-field fence for a two-run shot that extended the lead to 11-1.
Point Loma scored a pair in the fourth and added two more in the fifth inning on a Micah Pries home run, but Tovalin delivered a two-run single down the right-field line with two outs in the bottom of the fifth to keep the Cougars in front, 13-5. Gomez added an RBI single in the sixth, making it 14-5, but Point Loma started the seventh inning with six consecutive hits. Four of those six hits were home runs, with back-to-back solo home runs to lead off the frame from John Balliet and Colby Kaneshiro before Tyler Flores and Travis Takata each hit two-run home runs to close the gap to 14-11.
After surrendering Takata's home run, Dixon set down six of the next eight PLNU batters while O'Connor's solo home run in the bottom of the seventh added a run to the Cougars' cushion. After Dixon put the leadoff man in the ninth on base with a hit by pitch, Valasakos retired two of the first three batters he faced, although a two-out walk to Balliet loaded the bases for pinch-hitter Kyle Gracey. Valasakos' first pitch to Gracey was lifted high in foul territory near third base, and Tovalin settled under the popup for the game-ending out.
What's Next: Azusa Pacific remained in the No. 2 spot in the final public announcement of the West Region rankings, which were released Wednesday afternoon. This week's four-game series with Point Loma did not factor into this week's rankings but will be included in the final regional rankings which will be used for NCAA Division II Baseball National Championship selection and seeding. The Division II selection show is scheduled for Sunday, May 13, at 7 p.m. (Pacific time).
Inside The Box Score: Goudreau batted sixth in the lineup for the first time this season, and he went 1-for-4 with a walk to extend his streak of reaching base safely to 27 consecutive games… Gomez wraps up the regular season with a 12-game hitting streak… O'Connor had his third multi-HR game of the season after hitting two against Academy of Art and three in a game against California Baptist… The Cougars hit five home runs in a game for the third time this season… Azusa Pacific finished with five runners left on base, which tied its lowest number left on base in the 19 games the Cougars scored at least 10 runs.
Quotable
"I'm proud of this group, especially a great group of seniors that have led us all year. This was a great series, and Point Loma really left an amazing impression on me as a class act. These were four intense games, and I have a lot of respect for (PLNU head coach) Joe Schaefer and his crew for what his team was able to do this week. I coach is so these guys can feel adversity and see themselves prepare for it and overcome it. Going down two games to start this series and have to come back and win the third game to push it to a fourth game, I thought it was good to watch them come back and put together back-to-back wins to win it. They really made me proud." – Head coach Paul Svagdis
"We made an adjustment with Pablo today. Here he is, a first team All-American, and I came in today and told him I wanted to change something, which we normally don't do. He went into batting practice and did it, and he went into the game and executed it, and that just shows that he's first-class in every way. He's a lead-by-example guy, and he's one of our hardest workers in practice. For him to be able to trust the process, which today was just to shorten up and put the ball in play, I couldn't be more proud of him." – Svagdis
"This is a great feeling, and it feels a little sweeter because of the teammates I've been able to share it with. It's a sweet taste, and I'm really excited for this group, to see what we can do in the regionals. We're capable of being dangerous, but we still have some things to work on with our pitching, defense, and we still need to put more runs on the board. We may have scored 15 runs today, but we could still have more quality at-bats throughout the game, and if we can put all three of those together, we can become very dangerous. Our entire pitching staff is pretty young, and I tried to help them settle down and just dial it in with me. Once they were able to do that, they threw the ball very well and we were able to get another title." – Justin Gomez
"Coach Svagdis and I always talk about flushing at-bats and flushing games, just clearing them from my mind, and that's exactly what I wasn't doing this entire series. We talked this morning about being simple at the plate, and it worked out today. Winning a title in general is an unbelievable feeling, and sometimes it's a once-in-a-lifetime feeling. Being able to win it in back-to-back years is amazing, and this year's championship was a total team effort. Every guy on the team added value throughout the whole week and all year." – Pablo O'Connor
