SEASIDE, Calif. – The No. 17-ranked Cal State Monterey Bay baseball team powered its way to a 6-3 victory over No. 23 Northwest Nazarene Thursday evening in the NCAA West Regional opening round. 

The victory propels the Otters to 36-18 overall, while the Nighthawks' season comes to an end with a program-best record of 36-15-1.

JJ Engman, KW Quilici, and Cole Murchison collected six of the 10 Otter hits, but Nico Hartojo and Jaden Sheppard's lone knocks made the most noise. 

The Otters went down early on a solo shot from the Nighthawks in the second but responded in the fourth inning when Hartojo belted a three-run home run over the wall in left-center.

CSUMB tacked on three more in the next inning, all with two outs. Engman started the rally with a double down the line to right and then Quilici beat the shift to hit a single through the left side to plate Engman. Sheppard then hit a no-doubter for his 14th home run of the season to give the Otters a 6-2 lead.

Nate Rohlicek (6-3) earned the win after allowing three runs – two earned on six hits while striking out eight in six innings. Giovanni Costello earned his second save on the season after shutting the door on NNU. The sophomore struck out four and allowed two hits in his three innings of relief.

The Otters will face all too familiar San Francisco State tomorrow at 2 p.m.