The Cal State San Bernardino baseball team finished its CCAA schedule with a 13-8 win over Cal State East Bay today at Fiscalini Field. That makes the Coyotes 28-14 overall and 27-13 in CCAA play.

The Coyotes took three of four in the series to move into second place ahead of Cal State Dominguez Hills (34-15, 24-12) which has a four-game set left against Cal State Stanislaus next weekend. If the teams finished tied for second Dominguez Hills has the head-to-head tiebreaker and would be the No. 2 seed for the CCAA Tournament coming up.

The Coyotes are ranked No. 3 in the West Region so they look like a lock for the regional tournament regardless of how they do in the conference tournament.

It’s a fine showing for Coach Don Parnell’s squad. In fact, Parnell would be a good choice for CCAA Coach of the Year. Unfortunately those type of honors seem to go to the winning team more often than not.

UC San Diego won the regular season title and has spent much of the season ranked No. 1 in the country. The Coyotes did split four games with the Tritons which should also be a factor in Parnell’s favor.

Also consider that the Coyotes were sixth a year ago and were picked to finish eighth in the preseason coaches poll this season. I would say that’s a pretty good coaching job.

The Coyotes seem to be on a magical run, getting huge hits when they need them. a week ago they got a walkoff home run by Erik Ornelas to beat San Francisco State. On Thursday Leland Cisco came off the bench and did the same thing to win the first game against East Bay.

The Coyotes wrap up the regular season with a nonconference series next weekend against Grand Canyon and have a chance for 30 wins for the first time since 2004.

One other note, if the Coyotes make the regional, which they should, that would mean all four Cal State San Bernardino men’s sports made the postseason.

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