(AZUSA, Calif.) Top-seeded PLNU Baseball advanced to the championship round of the PacWest Championships for the second-straight year after a thrilling 10-7 extra-inning victory over Azusa Pacific late Thursday night.
After defeating Hawai'i Pacific in an elimination game earlier on Thursday, Point Loma repeated the feat late into the night against tournament hosts APU in a 10-inning game that lasted nearly four hours.
Down to their final two outs in the ninth, the Sea Lions stayed alive with a two-RBI double to left center from
Joey Nicolai that turned a one-run deficit into a one-run lead.
After the Cougars tied it up in the bottom half,
Jack Malone came through in extra innings with a go-ahead single to right that scored two.
Hunter Otjen added a sacrifice fly to the deepest part of the ballpark to put Point Loma up by three, before
James Sashin struck out the tying run at the plate in a scoreless 10th inning.
The late rally was possible after Otjen pitched two scoreless innings out of the bullpen to keep PLNU's deficit at one, as he induced an inning-ending double play to strand the bases loaded in the eighth.
Earlier in the game, Otjen and
Scott Anderson hit RBI-doubles, as Point Loma took an early 4-1 lead.
Azusa Pacific fought back to tie it up with three runs in the bottom of the third, before
Esai Santos restored PLNU's advantage in the sixth with an RBI-liner up the middle.
However, APU responded with two runs of its own in the bottom half to take its first lead of the game, which held until Nicolai's heroics in the ninth.
Point Loma (38-10-1 overall) will play Concordia on Friday at noon in the first championship game. With one loss already in the double-elimination tournament, PLNU will need to beat CUI to force a winner-take-all championship game.
POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE
