Jessup bats lead power surge during postseason push

Nothing changes a game faster than a swing that sends the baseball out of the park, and there are few teams in the country doing that better than Jessup University. The Warriors have belted 85 home runs this season, second most in NCAA Division II, and have four individuals with 10 or more long balls. Tony Otis leads the team with 18 home runs, tied for fifth in the nation. Quinton Hall has 13, while Cody Antone has 11. Freshman Landyn Plaut, one of the nation's top home run hitters at Lincoln High School last season, has 10. The long ball has been the driving force behind a recent surge by the Warriors, who have won seven of their last nine games. Jessup made a statement last weekend, sweeping defending PacWest-champion Westmont in four games in Santa Barbara. Jessup's bats erupted all weekend, but the Warriors had to settle for a split in a pivotal PacWest series with Fresno Pacific despite scoring 47 runs in four games. The Warriors dominated a doubleheader at McBean Park on April 16, piling up 28 runs in 15-9 and 13-4 wins behind a 33-hit outburst. Antone led the opener with a 4-for-6, four-run performance, while Gabe Harris highlighted game two with a grand slam as Jessup built a 10-0 lead early. The offense carried into Saturday in Fresno, but the results flipped. Jessup dropped a 15-14 heartbreaker in the opener despite a game-tying grand slam by Otis and late heroics by Antone and Matt Gonsalvez, with Fresno Pacific walking it off in the ninth. In the finale, the Warriors again struck early with home runs by Plaut and Otis and pulled within one on Jayden Montero's three-run shot but couldn't complete the comeback in a 6-5 loss. Jessup totaled 12 home runs on the weekend. The split moved Jessup to 26-18 overall and 22-16 in the PacWest. The Warriors are in fifth place in a tightly contested conference race. The top four teams in the conference advance to the PacWest Tournament in Fresno. Jessup enters the final week of the regular season needing a strong showing and help to secure a spot in the tournament. Because the Warriors split the series with Fresno Pacific last weekend, they remain just behind the Sunbirds in the standings and no longer control their postseason fate. Jessup closes the regular season at home this weekend against conference-leading Point Loma Nazarene for a four-game series at McBean Stadium. Jessup likely needs to win the series to stay in contention. Even then, the Warriors will be closely watching Fresno Pacific, which closes the season with series against second-place Concordia and Vanguard.