The Cal Poly Pomona baseball team got to host the NCAA Division II West Regional at Mt. SAC a year ago. It paid off as the Broncos won that and advanced to the NCAA championship and finished third.
The Broncos won’t be playing quite that close to home this year but they won’t be going far either. Cal Baptist, champion of the Pac West Conference, is the top seed and will host the six-team event that begins Thursday and runs through Monday.
There will be three games on Thursday with Cal Poly Pomona’s first foe being a familiar one – Chico State.
The Broncos (35-17) are seeded third with the Wildcats (35-20) seeded fourth. The teams are not strangers, having split four meetings this season. They met last week in the first round of the CCAA Tournament in Stockton with Chico prevailing 6-2. Chico leads the all-time series 58-34.
The Broncos went 10-5 against teams in the field this season, having played four of the other five entrants, with games against all the other three CCAA participants.
Other games the first day pit No. 2 Dixie State against No. 5 Cal State Monterey Bay at 11 with Cal Baptist playing Cal State East Bay at 3.
Admission is $10 a day for general admission and $5 for students and senior citizens. Military personnel and children 12-under are admitted free.
There are no local players on the Chico State roster bit there are several playing at CBU. Those include seniors Andrew Montoya (Colton), Jake Galloway (Etiwanda/Chaffey College), Taylor Wetzel (Grantie Hills), juniors Alec Morabito (Yucaipa), Brian Ruhm (Yucaipa) and Jeremy Steggell (Chino Hills), sophomores Travis Booth (Ontario Christian), D.J. Porter (Los Osos) and Brody Robinson (Redlands East Valley) and freshmen Vini Haro (Big Bear), Kenny Boardman (Grand Terrace) and Derek Escobar (Grand Terrace).