By Alex Franco and Cesar Rivas, February 10, 2026
Cal Poly Pomona baseball returned to the diamond for the first time in 2026 with a clean sweep in a three-game series against Azusa Pacific University Jan. 30-31.
Apart from the 2024 season, this match up hasn’t been kind to the Broncos, as they trail with an overall record of 16-23-1. However, despite a narrow 1-0 victory in the first game, the Broncos cruised past the Cougars in games two and three with 21-13 and 9-5 wins.
Game two will be forever remembered in history, as of Tuesday, Feb. 10, senior, Jack Sanders had the single greatest game in school history.
Scoring six times, Sander is the first player in program history to accomplish such a feat, and it also ties the all-time CCAA record.
In a season preview senior pitcher Dylan Esquival mentioned his excitement for the season to begin, along with being able to face “new competition.” Fast-forward to Jan. 30, he took the mound to start game one of the 2026 season.
Game one featured a veteran pitching duel between Esquival and APU senior right-handed pitcher Casey Spencer. Both starters found their groove early on, each allowing only one hit through three innings. Esquival had the strikeout advantage with four in comparison to Spencer’s three.
Head coach Randy Betten said pitching and defense are a major priority for this year’s squad.
“We pitched extremely well,” Betten said. “We worked really hard with those guys about pitching down in the zone because we feel like it’s a pitching and defense-oriented team, and I think we can really pick the ball up in the infield. So, if we can really get those guys to execute the bottom, they’re tough to beat.”
Esquival did run into trouble at the top of the fourth inning, as the Cougars had runners on first and second with one out. The second out came with the eighth pitch of the at-bat, with Esquival blowing a fastball right past Cougars outfielder Isaiah Rios and ended the inning with a flyout to center field.
The Broncos applied the pressure in the bottom half of the inning when outfielder Dominic Porter drew a lead-off walk but was forced out on a fielder’s choice by Diego Murillo who later stole second.
With Murillo on second, second baseman Bryan Richman drove in the run with a double to center field, putting the Broncos ahead 1-0.
“I got the first pitch, fastball inside, and then he kind of just started throwing me change ups,” Richman said. “And his changeup, that’s one of the best changeups I’ve ever seen. It’s really good. And I just was able to put the bat on it, went up the middle, found a hole and scored him, scored Diego.”
For the rest of the game, it was the Andrew Campbell show. The Riverside native shut the Cougars offense down and earned both his own and the Broncos first win of the season.
Campbell threw 77 pitches across five innings, including five strikeouts, and only allowed two hits.
“I really like to just keep it one pitch at a time, whatever happens, happens,” Campbell said.
The last two games in the series were both played Jan. 31, as part of a double header at APU.
CPP took game two in dominant fashion, 21-13, with homeruns from junior Julian Angulo and Sanders.
Sanders had the game of his life, tying four school records with one swing, ending with a stat line of six hits, six runs, nine RBIs and three homeruns, all in seven at bats in the same game.
“He is (an) insane player and highly competitive,” Betten said. “Sometimes you’ve got to tame him down a little bit, but I love what he’s about. Congratulations to him on those.”
Sanders hit his third home run in the top of the ninth. He is the first player to do so, since current associate head coach Jenzen Torres in 2012. He is also the first player since 2002, the fourth in program history, to reach the bases six times in one game.
To cap off his record-breaking performance, Sanders was the first player since Larry Reed in the 1963 season to score nine RBIs.
The Cougars also almost wrote themselves into the records books of NCAA Division II baseball in bottom of the fourth by hitting four home runs in consecutive at bats. APU was one homerun short of tying the Division II record set in 1998 by Alabama Huntsville.
The Broncos scored most of their runs at the top of the fourth with eight, and apart from two innings, the Broncos scored every time they came up to bat.
Alternatively, game three was a nail biter.
Using his momentum from previous game, Sanders opened the scoring with a solo homerun to right-center field in the first inning of the game and his fourth of the day.
The score remained 1-0 until the fourth inning where the Broncos scored one more run, as junior Arturo Rodriguez drove in redshirt freshman Tyler Blade, who led off the top-half with a triple to deep right-centerfield.
This wasn’t enough for the Broncos, as APU immediately responded with a three-run homerun in the bottom half of the inning, taking a 3-2 lead, their first lead of the series.
The Broncos took control the back in the eighth inning off a double down the line by junior Sebastian Casillas.
Blade sealed the game with a monster ninth inning homerun that brought the final score to 9-5.
Coming into the double header, Betten and his coaching staff set up a gameplan that relied on their defense making stops. He described his defense as superb.
“I tell the team the first three innings you try and win, the middle three you try and take care of,” Betten said. “Just keep the momentum on your side. You’re trying to win the last three.”
Feature image courtesy of the CPP Athletics