Sweeping into Conference

Saturday, February 27

Riverside, Calif.

12:00 PM

California Baptist University

10-4

Saint Martin's

3-7

Saint Martin's

California Baptist

Photo by: Conner Schuh

Sweeping into Conference

2/27/2016 3:29:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Andrew Shortall, Asst. Sports Information Director

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – For the first time in the series, California Baptist University found itself trailing Saint Martin's Saturday at Totman Stadium in the series finale.

It did not change the Lancers' approach, though, as they scored the final three runs of the game for a 7-5 victory and series sweep of the Saints. CBU ends non-conference play with a 10-4 record and remains undefeated against SMU all time, 8-0. Saint Martin's ends the week at 3-7.

"We just had to get a good wave going in this series," Andrew Montoya said. "Coming into this series, I just felt we had to perform well to get something good going as we head into conference. Things went well this week."

Montoya will certainly be riding a wave of momentum into conference, which starts for CBU at Dixie State next Thursday to Saturday. The senior shortstop went 2-for-3 with two doubles, two runs batted in and one run scored.

"We were trying to make adjustments offensively throughout the week," Montoya said. "We had a lot of clutch hits throughout the week, and I feel like we did a good job putting hits together."

He drove in the first and fifth runs of the game for the Lancers, who will look to upset the 13^th-ranked Red Storm next week after taking three of four games from DSU in St. George, Utah, last season.

"It's really fun playing there," Montoya said. "It's a good environment there and I think we can do what we did last year, win a few games and get a good vibe going."

There were three big exchanges in the game Saturday. CBU scored the first four runs, with a Montoya run-scoring double in the first and then a three-run Antonio Chavarria home run in the third.

With a 4-0 lead, it appeared the Lancers were headed to another comfortable win, but Saint Martin's rallied with a five-run fourth, with five hits and an error doing the damage. It ended the day for CBU starting pitcher Morgan Earman, who threw three shutout innings in his debut for the team, before Patrick Gonzales managed to limit the damage in relief.

CBU's bullpen remained solid this season, with Gonzales allowing one earned run, four hits and striking out three over four innings to pick up his second win of the year. Travis Booth notched his second save with two innings of work where he did not allow a base runner and struck out two.

Offensively, the Lancers were determined to regain the lead in the bottom of the fourth.

"We had a lot of game left and we all knew that," Montoya said. "We were just trying to get the leadoff guy on, move him over and do what we do as a team."

It took a two-out rally to make it happen, with Jake Gallaway hitting a leadoff single and then being replaced at first on a Zack Norris fielder's choice. Norris went on to steal second, with the play inducing a throwing error from the catcher that moved him all the way to third.

With two outs and a 2-2 count, Montoya made it a new ball game with an RBI double into left field. Stephen Lohr then scored Montoya with a single through the left side to put CBU back in front, 6-5. Insurance came in the sixth on two SMU errors to seal the 7-5 Lancer victory.