Starter Ray Cebulski pitched a gem for No. 4 Point Loma Nazarene at the NCAA Division II World Series Wednesday, but unfortunately his counterpart did him one better.
The 1-0 loss ended the Sea Lions’ postseason run as Jake Black of No. 5 Indiana University of Pennsylvania had a perfect game through 4.1 innings in Cary, N.C.
The Crimson Hawks scored one run in the first inning on a softly hit liner with two outs, but Cebulski, with seven innings, and James Sashin, with two, held IUP scoreless the rest of the way.
Black, however, during eight innings of work, made that run stand up. He joined with Bryce Devan, who pitched an inning for the save, to limit PLNU to three hits and four baserunners on the day.
“Hats off to Jake Black. He was outstanding today. He held down a very good offense,” said Point Loma coach Justin James.
Bryson Hashimoto broke up the perfect game in the fifth with a single to right, then stole second, but the Sea Lions stranded him. The next inning, Joey Nicolai singled and tagged up on a deep fly ball, but advanced no further.
No Sea Lion base runner make it to third base and the team had to watch long fly balls that might have left the yard in another ballpark die in the spacious field at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.
PLNU opened the tournament with a win over IUP Saturday, then fell to the 2023 champion Angelo State 13-6 Monday, putting them on the ropes in the double-elimination tournament.
Point Loma ends the season at a 46-13-1, having won a third-straight PacWest regular season championship and a first PacWest Tournament title.
“I think this is going to be a team we look back on that we’re going to be extremely proud of, they were really good in the classroom, they were good with professors … and then obviously they’re very good at baseball,” James said.
The Sea Lions went on to win the West Region crown for a second time in three years before making a second trip to the NCAA Division II World Series. They finished as national runner-up in 2022.
