Angelic Ending Before Record Crowd

Wednesday, April 20

Anaheim, Calif.

7:05 PM

California Baptist University

31-8, 21-4

Point Loma

23-14, 12-11

Point Loma

California Baptist

Photo by: Jacob Gonzalez

Angelic Ending Before Record Crowd

4/20/2016 8:30:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Andrew Shortall, Asst. Sports Information Director

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Playing its first game in a Major League Baseball stadium, California Baptist University baseball drew the largest crowd ever to witness a live Lancer sporting event in the history of the school Wednesday night at Angel Stadium in Anaheim.

A record crowd of 7,583 was treated to a PacWest thriller between sixth-ranked CBU and Point Loma, as the Lancers grabbed the 5-2 victory with a three-run eighth inning and complete-game effort from starting pitcher Tyson Miller.

"This was a great experience, not many people get to pitch in Angel Stadium and on a professional mound," Miller said. "This was what I imagined: big-league stage with a lot of people turning up and a good turnout from our CBU students. It was just a great environment and it was a great opportunity to play in this one."

The mass of Lancer fans shattered the previous home attendance record (760) for a CBU game, albeit the Lancers did play as the home team at a neutral site Wednesday. The old mark came in the 2015 home opener against Cal State Los Angeles on Feb. 6th.

"It was a great game," said CBU catcher Mark Sanchez, who had the breakout hit in the eighth. "I have been a huge Angels fan my whole life, so win or lose, this was probably going to be one of the greatest experiences of my life."

Thankfully, the Lancers got the win and stayed on top of the conference-championship race, with a 31-8, 21-4 in conference record, to extend their lead on second-place Dixie State (32-10, 24-8) to 4.5 games. The Sea Lions fall to 23-14, 12-11. The PacWest series with PLNU continues at Totman Stadium in Riverside on Friday at 6 p.m. and wraps up with a noon doubleheader on Saturday.

Miller limited damage in the top of the first and then dominated for CBU. He allowed just one base runner from the second to the ninth and retired the side in order from the second to the sixth. Miller also sat the Sea Lions down 1-2-3 in the eighth and ninth, as well. Overall, he struck out five, walked one and gave up three hits before finishing the game off on just 101 pitches.

"It was reminiscent of Trevor Oaks' outing in the playoffs a few years back," Coach Gary Adcock said in reference to a complete-game gem against Cal Poly Pomona from Oaks back on May 15th, 2014. "Everything went bad early and to be able to stop it and turn it around is really a tribute to his development. It felt like deja vu from that opening playoff game in 2014."

Tyler Johnson (2-for-3) and Sanchez (2-for-4) both finished with two hits for the Lancers, and were both critical to the three-run eighth for CBU.

Point Loma came out firing and put up two runs on two hits and an error in the top of the first inning, but the Lancers ended what could have been worse with a 1-6-3 double-play grounder and cut down a Sea Lion runner, who got greedy on the error, at third.

CBU answered back and tied the game with two runs in the bottom of the second. Sanchez sparked the attack with a leadoff and stand-up triple off the fence in right field. He came around to score on a Jake Gallaway grounder to shortstop, but Alec Morabito would have scored him anyway, as he laced a home run inside the right-field foul pole to tie the game, 2-2.

Johnson led off the bottom of the eighth with a bloop single over the shortstop's head. The next two batters were retired, but with two outs, Stephen Lohr was hit by a pitch and Antonio Chavarria drew a five-pitch walk to join Johnson and Lohr on base.

With bases loaded and two outs, Sanchez came through big time to put his team in front. The junior catcher blooped one over the second baseman, who got his glove on it but could not complete the over-the-shoulder basket catch.

"I thought I really crushed it," Sanchez joked of his seeing-eye hit. "Hey, man, he had a good pitch and I tried to compete with it. I'm happy it fell our way."

Two Lancers scored on the play, and Chavarria came home on a well-executed, double-steal attempt later on in the inning to end the scoring.

"I think everyone would be lying if they said they came in here without any sort of nerves," Sanchez said. "You want to come and play well here in front of this home crowd, in front of friends and family. I am just happy we were able to pull it out."

"We really felt it, the crowd was a little louder than it is at Totman," Miller said. "They had a lot of fun with it, just like we did today."