Plaia Leads Lancers in Opener

Thursday, April 19

Azusa, Calif.

5:00 PM

California Baptist University

25-14, 18-11

Azusa Pacific

34-3, 24-3

California Baptist

Azusa Pacific

Photo by: Andrew Shortall

Plaia Leads Lancers in Opener

4/19/2018 7:37:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Andrew Shortall, Asst. Sports Information Director

AZUSA, Calif. – California Baptist University opened its PacWest series against top-ranked Azusa Pacific with a strong first inning at the plate, but the Cougars pushed through and took game one 17-4 on Thursday.

CBU drops to 25-14, 18-11 in the conference and APU improves to 34-3, 24-3. The conference rivals continue their series Friday at 5 p.m. and then end it with a noon doubleheader on Saturday.

Offensively, the Lancers logged 10 hits on Thursday and Nick Plaia led the way with a 3-for-3 performance at the plate against the Cougars' ace pitcher Isaiah Carranza. Luke Navigato, John Glenn, Tommy Bell, Ryan Williams, Rory Smith and Kyle Oyama also collected hits for CBU.

Navigato got the Lancers out to a great start with a double on the first pitch of the game. A grounder moved him to third and then an Andrew Bash sacrifice fly scored him for a 1-0 CBU lead. The Cougars scored the next 12 runs, but the Lancers would not give up.

A lead-off single from Plaia and one-out base knock from Oyama set the table for a two-run double from Glenn in the fifth inning. The Lancers tacked on their fourth run in the sixth after a one-out single from Williams and two-out RBI double from Plaia.