Tritons Host, Otters and Broncos Set for Rematch in NCAA Baseball Championship West Regionals
Complete release & NCAA selection show
INDIANAPOLIS – The CCAA will be represented by three squads in the 2019 NCAA Division II Baseball Championship as the selection committee has chosen UC San Diego, Cal State Monterey Bay and Cal Poly Pomona as three of the 56 participating teams.
Divided into two three-team regional brackets, the West’s No. 2 seed belongs to CCAA regular-season champion UC San Diego. The Tritons (35-12) are back-to-back West Region champions and 2017 national runners-up. UC San Diego is making its 11th NCAA Division II Championship appearance and third straight, with a record of 34-20 (.630).
UC San Diego will play host to crosstown foe No. 3 Point Loma and first-ever participant No. 6 Montana State-Billings, who open the action from Triton field on Thursday, and the Tritons will take on the winners of that game Friday at 3:30 p.m.
Whether in the day’s first or second contest, UC San Diego will face off with Point Loma on Friday, for the first time since a 22-3 triumph on the first night of the 2018 NCAA West Regional in Azusa. That game was the Tritons' first against the Sea Lions since an elimination game of the 2015 NCAA West Regional in Walnut on May 15, 2015, a contest that UC San Diego also won, by the final score of 7-5 en route to the final. The Tritons are 46-39-1 all-time against the Sea Lions. UC San Diego has never met MSUB.
The other side of the West Regional bracket will take place at the home of No. 1 Azusa Pacific. The Cougars host No. 4 Cal State Monterey Bay (35-21) and No. 5 Cal Poly Pomona (29-26) to complete the trio of teams in Azusa. The Otters enter the brackets after earning an at-large berth into the field as both the regular-season and tournament runners-up. Cal Poly Pomona, meanwhile, worked its way into the NCAA postseason conversation after turning in an impressive week at Stockton’s Banner Island Ballpark as the No. 6 seed to claim the CCAA’s automatic bid and their second-ever tournament title.
On Championship Saturday it took two games to decide the tournament winner, as Cal State Monterey Bay took the first game of day 4-2 before falling to Cal Poly Pomona 6-4 as the Broncos hoisted the hardware. The two met previously in Stockton, as well, playing to the first 1-0 decision in CCAA Baseball Tournament history on Friday with an 11th-inning solo homerun for Nick Piefer to give the Broncos the victory.
The evenly matched duo also split the regular-season series in Seaside two games apiece, so Cal Poly Pomona owns the narrow 4-3 advantage in games played in 2019 between the familiar foes.
The Game 1 victor between the Otters and Broncos will take on Azusa Pacific (36-13) on Friday, the automatic qualifier as the champion of the PacWest regular season for the third year in a row. The top-seeded Cougars served as the host of the then-six-team West Regional the past two years, with UC San Diego advancing both times via perfect 4-0 runs through the tournament bracket.
The championship provides for 16 regional sites of three or four teams each to fill the 56-team field. All double-elimination regional tournaments will be played May 16-18. Regional winners will advance to the best-of-three super-regional competition May 24-25. Super Regional winners will advance to play at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, N.C., hosting for the 10th time in the last 11 seasons. The championship finals are slated to be contested June 1-8.
2019 NCAA Division II Baseball Championship West Regional 1 & 2
UC San Diego & Azusa Pacific, Hosts.
(Double-Elimination Format)
Thursday, May 16
Game 1 (APU regional) No. 4 Cal State Monterey Bay vs. No. 5 Cal Poly Pomona | 1 p.m.
Game 1 (UCSD regional): No. 3 Seed Point Loma vs. No. 6 Seed MSU Billings | 7 p.m.
Friday, May 17
Game 2 (APU regional): No. 1 Azusa Pacific vs. Loser Game 1 | 2 p.m.
Game 2 (UCSD regional): No. 2 UC San Diego vs. Loser Game 1 | 3:30 p.m.
Game 3 (APU regional): Winner Game 1 vs. Winner/Loser Game 2 (No. 1 Azusa Pacific) | 3:30 p.m.
Game 3 (UCSD regional): Winner Game 1 vs. Winner/Loser Game 2 (No. 2 UC San Diego) | 7 p.m.
Saturday, May 18
Game 4 (APU regional): Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3 | Noon
Game 4 (UCSD regional): Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3 | 3:30 p.m.
Game 5 (both regionals): If necessary, following Game 4
*If the No. 1 Seed wins Game 2, then Game 3 will become the first of a best-of-three series between the No. 1 Seed and the winner of Game 1.
*If the winner of Game 2 is the loser of Game 1, the loser of Game 2 will play the winner of Game 1.
*If three teams remain after Game 3, alternate bracket matchups are: Game 4 – Winner Game 2 vs. Loser Game 3; Game 5 – Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 3