By Alex Franco, February 17, 2026
Cal Poly Pomona’s baseball team hosted No. 7 Colorado Mesa for a four-game weekend series, in which the Broncos and the Mavericks split the series, 2-2.
The Mavericks opened their season on the road against the Broncos ranked as one of the best Division II teams in the nation, as shown in the preseason polls from the NCBWA National Poll.
The series kicked off Feb. 6, where the Broncos took command early and didn’t let go of it, scoring four runs in the bottom half of the fifth and taking the series opener in convincing fashion, 5-1.
Those four runs gave pitchers senior Dylan Esquival, redshirt junior Geo Hernandez and redshirt sophomore Sean Suriyaniel a comfortable lead to pitch with the rest of the game.
Esquival, who started for the Broncos, posted a stat line of two hits, seven strike outs, all in five scoreless innings, leading Esquival to earn CCAA Baseball Pitcher of the Week.
CMU and CPP split the double-header that followed Feb. 7. CMU took the first game, as its pitching staff only allowed six hits throughout the entire game and shutout the Broncos from scoring 8-0. .
“The schedule’s set up for four-game weekends,” head coach Randy Betten said. “There’s no excuse to be fatigued or tired. … I’m just thinking about how can we get the team to play consistently for four games.”
The third game ended in something never seen before at Scolinos Field.
Down to their final three outs in the last game of the double-header Saturday night, the Mavericks rallied, scoring four unanswered runs as the Broncos’ pitching staff could not find a single out.
Loading up the bases twice in the bottom of the seventh, it seemed as if the Mavericks pulled all the momentum the Broncos had throughout the game and were within striking distance to take the lead.
But down to CPP’s last strike with the bases loaded, CMU’s Noah Solano violated Appendix F, II, Rule 9 of the NCAA Baseball Rules Book, which states that if a batter is not ready to hit with eight or more seconds remaining on the 20 second pitching clock, the pitcher will be automatically awarded a strike without throwing the ball for the batter.
In this case, pitcher Gavin Smith, who was on the mound for the Broncos at the time, was awarded his third and final strike of the at-bat, resulting in a strikeout and a Bronco victory, 8-5.
The Mavericks looked to bounce back from the previous night’s fiasco in series finale Feb. 8 and did so in dominant and decisive fashion, 10-3.
“We made some mental mistakes, physical mistakes, and (CMU) took advantage of them,” associate head coach Jenzen Torres said. “I didn’t think we pitched as bad as what the score said.”
Betten said his team competed well throughout the series but credited little mistakes, such as defensive errors and miscommunication between players, for the Broncos splitting the series.
“(I) thought we did pretty good,” senior outfielder Jack Sanders said, about the overall series performance from the team. “The last game didn’t go our way, but if we stay true to ourselves, do what we need to do, we’ll be fine.”
Coming off the greatest single-game performance from any Bronco in school history, which earned him player of the week honors, Sanders wants to keep on making his mark, while keeping true to himself throughout the year.
“Keep things simple, try not to overthink, and just try to repeat what I do,” Sanders said.
Despite the two losses, CPP improved its record to 5-2 with two non-league series remaining. The Broncos will start conference play on the road with a four-game series versus Cal State San Bernardino starting March 6.
Feature image courtesy of the CPP Athletics
