(SAN DIEGO) For the second time in three years, PLNU Baseball is headed to the NCAA Division II World Series.
After a 7-1 victory over Cal State Monterey Bay in the Super Regionals, Point Loma completed an epic Saturday sweep and officially punched its ticket to Cary, North Carolina as the West Region champion.
Needing two wins on the day to keep its season alive, PLNU pulled off a miraculous 13-inning comeback victory in the first game before running away with the nightcap to claim its second NCAA regional title.
CSUMB seemed to move past its devastating loss with a solo shot in the second inning to take an early 1-0 lead, only for
Tommy Molina's RBI-single to level the score in the bottom half.
Two innings later, PLNU broke the game open with a six-run fourth inning, with all runs coming with two outs.
Joey Nicolai started the two-out rally with an RBI-double to left to give the Sea Lions the lead, followed by back-to-back homers from
Eric Smelko and
Esai Santos.
After a single from
Scott Anderson,
Jake Entrekin hit the team's third long ball in four batters, as his two-run blast made it 7-1 Sea Lions.
That was more than enough scoring for PLNU, as starter
Ray Cebulski was electric in his eight innings of work, only allowing one run.
Hunter Otjen then pitched a scoreless ninth, including a game-ending strikeout to seal the victory.
Point Loma (45-11-1 overall) will now represent the West Region as one of eight teams at the NCAA Division II World Series, which will take place June 1-8.
The Sea Lions finished as national runner-up in 2022.
POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE
