AZUSA, Calif. -- College baseball's home run kings upheld their reputation in the opening game of the NCAA Division II West Super Regional, as Azusa Pacific's offense blasted six home runs to lead the top-seeded Cougars to a 13-2 win over two-time defending West Region champion UC San Diego Friday afternoon.

The victory gives Azusa Pacific the early edge in the best-of-three super regional format, which is new in Division II this season. The teams square off again Saturday at noon in Game 2 of the series, and Game 3 (if necessary) is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m.

As a team, Azusa Pacific now has 103 home runs on the season, tops among all three NCAA divisions, and one of Friday's longballs came off the bat of the NCAA individual home run leader, Cole Kleszcz, who hit his 26th of the season on the next pitch after Casey Dykstra smashed a two-run blast in the second inning. Justin Gomez had a pair of home runs to extend his hitting streak to 20 games.

A.J. Woodall limited UC San Diego to two runs on five hits over eight innings of work, with both runs coming on Shay Whitcomb's two-run shot in the third inning to cut Azusa Pacific's lead in half to 4-2. Woodall struck out six as he improved to 8-2 on the year.

What It Means: The winner of this week's Super Regional claims the West Region championship and the region's berth in the eight-team NCAA Division II World Series in Cary, North Carolina. If Azusa Pacific wins either Game 2 or Game 3 on Saturday, it clinches the West Region title, while UC San Diego needs to win both games Saturday to claim its third consecutive West Region crown.

How It Happened: Osvaldo Tovalin drove West Region Pitcher of the Year Brandon Weed's seventh pitch of the game to the opposite field over the fence in left field to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead in the first inning, and Dykstra and Kleszcz added back-to-back home runs in the second inning to push the lead to 4-0.

Woodall retired seven of eight batters after R.J. Prince's leadoff infield single in the first, but Prince reached on a one-out walk in the third and scored on a Shay Whitcomb two-run home run to right to cut the lead to 4-2. Woodall only allowed four more baserunners the rest of the way, of which only one advanced safely to second.

Meanwhile, Tovalin sparked the Cougar offense again with a leadoff double in the fifth. Tovalin scored on Griffen Herrera's single through the right side, and Justin Gomez followed with a shot to right-center for his first of two home runs on the day. Joseph Kim added a two-out solo home run later in the fifth, capping a four-run frame which extended the lead to 8-2.

Azusa Pacific put up another four-spot in the sixth, with Gomez providing a three-run opposite-field blast to left-center to make it 12-2. Kleszcz drove in the first run of the frame with an RBI single, which scored Dykstra from second base.

Hayden Jorgenson finished off the victory with a perfect ninth, striking out the final two Tritons hitters to end the game.

Inside The Box Score: Cole Kleszcz is NCAA's all-divisions home run leader with 26, sitting just ahead of two players with 25 (Division II MSU Denver's Matt Malkin and Division I Vanderbilt's J.J. Bleday… Justin Gomez extended his hitting streak to 20 games, the team's longest this season, and he has reached base safely in 31 straight games… Five different Cougars recorded multiple hits in the victory, with Tovalin's 3-for-5 effort raising his season batting average to .405 with his team-high 25th multi-hit game this season… Woodall's performance was the fourth time he's gone eight-plus innings in a start this season, and he's done it three times in his past five starts… After an error on the first batter it faced in its West Regional opener, Azusa Pacific hasn't committed another error since, playing 35 consecutive error-free innings.

Super Regional Game 1 Press Conference (Head Coach Paul Svagdis with Justin Gomez, Casey Dykstra, and A.J. Woodall)