By Alex Franco, March 24, 2026
The Cal Poly Pomona baseball team dominated its weekend series versus the Chico State Wildcats March 13-15, with a shutout, high-octane energy and a complete game all courtesy of the Bronco’s pitching staff throughout four games.
With the help of its batting lineup, the Broncos scored 20 runs over the weekend, winning three of the four games with junior Julian Angulo and senior Jack Sanders each hitting home runs. Sanders’ was in game one and Angulo’s was in game four.
CPP’s starting pitchers of the weekend, including senior Andrew Campbell, redshirt junior Matthew Leyva, junior Anthony Vasquez and senior Matthew Lorenzano each gave quality starts, as both threw scoreless outingsdeep into their respected games, allowing for its bullpen staff to come in and seal the deal. Campbell grabbed his fifth win of season, while both Vazquez and Lorenzano claimed their first win of season.
“When you have that type of start and it creates momentum and energy, energy creates energy for the offense,” said head coach Randy Betten. “I think there’s three ways you can get energy: dugout, obviously with the bats and then on the mound. Those three spots are energy givers.”
As the CCAA Game of the Week, game one’s 6-1 win proved the Broncos were on a mission to bounce back from last year’s series, when the Wildcats swept CPP on the road
Sander’s home run tied game one in the fourth, 1-1, as the Broncos scored three runs in the fifth off a double from junior outfielder Daniel Ruiz, single by redshirt freshman outfielder Austin Duarte and a sacrifice RBI byjunior infielder Julian Angulo.
Junior infielder Brian Richman helped the Broncos going for three hits on four at-bats. He scored in the final run of game three for the Broncos in the bottom of the seventh with a base hit to right field, allowing redshirt freshman Tyler Blade, who was on third at the time, to score.
But it wasn’t just the offense that was on point this weekend. The starting pitchers for the Broncos only allowed two runs throughout a combined 24 innings all weekend. Ahe Wildcats’ runs came from the hands of the CPP bullpen.
Campbell and Leyva minimized their damages. Both only gave up one run in their starts, while both Vasquez and Lorenzano tossed a scoreless seven innings. Vasquez’s performance earned him a complete game, throwing a shutout of seven innings with four strikeouts. Lorenzano’s performance Sunday, including seven scoreless innings, seven strikeouts and three hits, also earned him honors as CCAA’s Pitcher of the Week.
Despite his pitching performance, Lorenzano’s best play of the game came from his defense. With bases loaded in the top of the fourth and a hungry Wildcat team looking to pounce, Chico State’s junior catcher Cole Nachreiner smoked a ground ball up the middle that seemed like it was going to get through the infield. Had it not been for Lorenzano blindly putting his glove down to field it at the top of the pitcher’s mound, the Wildcats would’ve taken the lead and the momentum CPP was riding all series long.
“To be honest, I just threw my glove down, and then I felt something hit my pocket, and I was like, OK, I caught it,’ and everything was sped up to be honest because I was like, ‘There’s no way I just caught that,’” Lorenzano said.
Also, if every Bronco player either on the field or on the bench wasn’t yelling to throw the ball home, Lorenzano said his initial instinct would have been to throw it to second base.
After getting that double play, with yelling of excitement from his face in a demeanor that was full of adrenaline, flexing his arms down as if as if he survived the bottom of the eighth in game seven of the World Series, Lorenzano made it seemed as if he got out of the inning when in reality those were the only two outs of the inning. He did manage to escape the inning after a groundout to second basemen Richman, as he held the Wildcats scoreless for the rest of his tenure on the mound.
Pitchers mainly get the credit if they have a stellar performance, but every pitcher knows this is only half of the equation. The other half sits behind home plate. Lorenzano’s catcher, redshirt junior Evan Nahra explained the chemistry between the two is just the tip of the iceberg of their relationship with one another.
“I met Zo in the fall,” Nahra said. “I’d faced him when he was at Mt. SAC when I was at Pasadena City. Always knew he was a good pitcher and had a lot of respect for him. He fills up the zone, He does really good stuff. I worked with him in the fall and trying to get to know him and know what he likes, makes him tick, build a relationship.”
Betten appreciates how all his pitchers, both starters and relivers preformed this weekend, and he credited Chico State for putting up a fight all weekend long.
“Lorenzano today was special,” Betten said. “That’s what we’ve asked for him, and we made some adjustments with him this week, and they paid off.”
Both the Wildcats and the Broncos took a game from each other Saturday. The Wildcats won the first game 1-2, and the Broncos won the second game, 4-0.
In the loss, the Broncos battled all throughout the game, allowing only two runs, one in the second and one in the sixth. Both runs were scored on ground balls that managed to find their way to the outfield.
CPP did not let the loss affect the next game’s, the last game of the doubleheader Saturday, mentality, as the Broncos fired off three runs in the bottom of the fourth thanks to doubles from Sanders and Richman.
During the series, the Broncos improve their overall record to 13-7, and 5-1 in CCAA play. Next, the Broncos will hit the road and travel north to Warrior Baseball Field in Turlock, California, starting another four-game-series against Stanislaus State Friday March, 20.
Feature image courtesy of the Cesar Rivas