LOS ANGELES — Building off a strong regular season finish that carried them to their fourth consecutive conference title, Cal State Monterey Bay began what it hopes will be an extended postseason.
The Otters began defense of their California Collegiate Athletic Association conference tournament baseball title Thursday with a 12-9 win over Chico State at Cal State, Los Angeles.
Having closed the regular season with a 7-2 run to become the first team in the CCAA to win four straight conference titles in 52 years, the Otters are chasing their third straight conference tournament crown.
Regardless of the outcome, it’s expected that CSUMB will be seeded Sunday into the NCAA West Regional. However, winning the conference tournament could catapult them into hosting the tournament.
Last year the Otters (34-16) came within an inning of advancing to the Division II College World Series.
Having split its two regular season games with Chico State, the Otters turned to Salinas High graduate Max Farfan, who delivered a three-run homer in the eighth inning to extend their lead to four.
A second team all-conference shortstop, Farfan took over the team lead in homers (12), extending his runs batted in lead to 52 through CSUMB’s first 50 games.
Dominic Felice put together another big day at the plate for the Otters with three hits, putting him over .300 on the season, one of seven players in the lineup hitting over .300. Jimmy Garcia and Junior Felix also drove in a pair of runs.
All nine starters in the lineup had at least one hit for CSUMB, with right fielder Noah Zertuche collecting three doubles and CCAA Player of the Year KW Quilici finishing with two hits, raising his season average to .388.
Andrew Koten closed out the game for CSUMB by hurling the final 1.1 innings. The Otters will face the CSU Dominguez Hills-San Francisco State winner Friday at p.m.
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