USD, PLNU HEADED TO NCAA PLAYOFFS

The University of San Diego baseball team qualified for the NCAA Division I tournament and Point Loma Nazarene earned a place in the Division II championship series on Saturday in a pair of tight victories against conference rivals.

USD battled all afternoon and into the evening in a backand-forth game against West Coast Conference top seed Gonzaga that gave a glimpse of the resilience the Toreros displayed all season.

A six-run rally in the eighth positioned USD for a win that remained elusive until 11thinning homers by Jack Costello and Cody Jefferis produced a 15-12 victory over the Bulldogs at Stockton’s Banner Island Ballpark.

It delivered the WCC tournament title to the Toreros for the first time in nine years.

Accompanying the championship trophy — an automatic berth to the NCAA Division I Regionals.

USD (36-18) will find out Monday morning which fourteam regional it will be assigned in the 64-team tournament (the NCAA Selection Show is at 9 a.m. on ESPN2 or it can be streamed at espn.com/watch).

It is the ninth NCAA Regionals appearance in USD history, but the first since the 2013 season.

“It feels fricking great,” first-year USD head coach Brock Ungricht said in a postgame broadcast interview.

Ungricht said the Toreros were rewarded for “the hard work, the dedication, the belief.”

“It’s the never giving up, the never quit, the toughness, the discipline, but most importantly staying together,” he said. “The brotherhood, that’s what it’s all about with these guys.”

Gonzaga scored five times before Toreros reliever Drake Frize, who followed Gabe Maya to the mound, could get out of the first inning.

The Toreros had opened the game with two runs in the first inning, and all of a sudden it was 5-2.

They battled back to make it 5-5 with three runs in the second, only to watch Gonzaga score two more in the third to regain the lead. The Bulldogs added three more runs in the seventh.

The Toreros responded with their biggest inning of the game — a six-run eighth that provided a 12-10 lead.

It was a two-run double by

Toreros 15, Gonzaga 12 Sea Lions 5, Azusa Pacific 2

Costello that provided the last two runs.

Sophomore right-hander Ivran Romero from Poway High, who got the save in Friday’s win over Gonzaga, allowed a solo home run in the eighth and another run in the ninth to make it 12-12.

Kyle Carr, a two-way redshirt freshman from San Marcos High, was handed the ball in extra innings.

Carr (2-1) was there when the Toreros needed him most, striking out three without allowing a hit over the last two innings.

When he struck out Gonzaga’s Logan Johnstone to end the game, Carr was soon mobbed on the mound by his teammates.

Back in San Diego, the Sea Lions were wrapping up a playoff berth of their own at PLNU’S Carrol B. Land Stadium.

With a 5-2 win over Azusa Pacific, Point Loma Nazarene is headed to the NCAA Division II championship series for the first time in school history. And the Sea Lions may have head coach Justin James’ powers of persuasion to thank for it.

The clinching game turned in the fifth on an inning-ending call that was reversed after James briefly pleaded his case, and PLNU scored the go-ahead runs moments later.

PLNU (48-8), which set a single-season school record for victories with the win, will join seven other teams for the double-elimination event June 4-11 in Cary, N.C. The Sea Lions became the first team in Pacwest history to reach the NCAA Division II championship series.

In the fifth, PLNU loaded the bases with two outs and Christian at the plate. The Pacwest Freshman of the Year was hit in the left knee by a pitch from reliever Declan Kearney. Rather than take his base and force home a run, Christian was judged to have leaned into the pitch over the plate.

That’s when James came out of the dugout to discuss the decision. After a conference among the umpires in front of the mound, the call was reversed.

Three pitches later, Christian singled between third base and shortstop and two runners came home to give the Sea Lions a 4-2 lead.

kirk.kenney@sduniontribune.com