College baseball: CSUMB blanked in opener of DII Super Regionals
NAMPA, Idaho — That elusive 40th win. It coincides with Cal State Monterey Bay chasing a spot in college baseball’s NCAA Division II World Series.
If the Otters are going to achieve both, they will need short memories after Thursday’s 14-0 loss to top seed Northwest Nazarene in the NCAA Division II Super Regionals best-of-three series.
“It was probably our worst game of the year,” CSUMB coach Walt White said. “We didn’t play. We probably gave them seven outs in one inning. We didn’t read the ball well in the outfield. The ball was carrying out to left field. But we didn’t hit it to left.”
The Otters didn’t hit the ball period, managing just two hits through seven innings before White began substituting with his attention already turning towards Friday.
“We have not lost two games in a row since February,” said White, who has 445 wins in his 15-year career at CSUMB. “We seem to win two after we lose one, and that’s what we need to do.”
Having tied the school record for wins in each of the last three years, the Otters will look to keep their season alive Friday when they face the host Nighthawks in a potential elimination game.
The reigning four-time California Collegiate Athletic Association champions are no strangers to facing adversity, having had to win their final regular season game to become the first program in 52 years to win four straight conference titles.
Last weekend the Otters recovered from an 8-1 loss to West Regional top seed Westmont to win two straight games and earn a trip to Nampa, Idaho to face the Great Northwest Athletic Conference champions.
“On one of my visits to the mound in the later innings, I reminded the players to have some pride,” White said. “It’s not the end of this thing. I like the way we walked off the field. We’re a pretty determined team. We’ll show up tomorrow.”
Absorbing its worst of the season, CSUMB was shut out for just the second time this year, having fallen 6-0 to Cal Poly Pomona on Feb. 22.
“It doesn’t matter if you lose 14-0 or 1-0, it feels the same,” White said. “The only real difference is you start to feel it in the seventh inning.”
The Nighthawks came into the game 42-12 and ranked No. 8 in the nation in Division II, one spot ahead of CSUMB in the latest Top 25 poll.
The two teams were no strangers to each other, having faced off in last year’s NCAA West Regionals, with the Otters knocking them out of the postseason with a 6-3 win.
CSUMB, who is making its third straight Super Regional appearance, brought a lineup that had seven starters hitting over .300, with a school record 77 homers.
Yet, the potent bats were tamed by Northwest Nazarene ace Ernesto Lugo Canchola, who improved to 12-0 after seven shutout innings, lowering his earned run average to 1.94.
The former University of Utah hurler and Division II All-American handcuffed the Otters to two hits over seven innings, striking out five, mixing a fastball with an off-speed pitch that seemed to have hitters diving at pitches.
“He (Canchola) had a late run to his pitches,” White said. “He hid the ball well and it was hard to pick up. If you look at his numbers, that’s what he’s done all year. He’s a good pitcher.”
Having produced a school record 437 runs coming into the game, Northwest Nazarene has created scoring opportunities on the base paths all spring, having stolen a school record 122 bases — two more on Thursday.
Erupting for four runs in the second inning, the Nighthawks blew the game open in the fifth with a six-run uprising, two coming off the bat of right fielder Nin Burns, who homered and finished with three hits, while throwing out a runner at the plate in the first inning.
While CSUMB sports one of the top road records in the nation at 17-10, including three games last weekend in Santa Barbara, the Nighthawks are 19-6 at home and 13-2 in their last 14 games.
