RIVERSIDE, Calif. — There was plenty of excitement at Totman Stadium Thursday night as California Baptist University and Biola opened up their PacWest series.
 
The Eagles rushed out to a six-run lead, but the Lancers came all the way back to force a tie in the seventh inning. Biola withstood the blow and scored twice in the ninth to hold on for the 9-7 victory.
 
CBU moves to 18-13, 11-10 in the PacWest and Biola improves to 21-10, 13-8. The series continues with a 2:30 p.m. doubleheader on Friday and wraps up Saturday at noon.

Luke Navigato, John Glenn, DJ Porter and Nick Plaia all had two hits in the game for the Lancers, who trailed by as many as six runs in the game after giving up a run in the first and five in the fifth.

CBU got on the board and made it a 6-1 deficit with a run in the sixth. Ryan Mota led off the inning with a double to right field, but the Eagles recorded the next two outs and appeared to have the third on a strikeout. A wild pitch allowed Porter to reach first base safely and moved Mota to third. Kyle Oyama came up with the big two-out hit when he sliced a single to right field to score Mota.

Biola seemed to be in good shape when it got the run back in the top of the seventh for a 7-1 lead. The Lancers came all the way back and tied the game 7-7 with six runs in the bottom half of the inning.
 
The damage started with a strikeout and passed ball that allowed Navigato to reach safely to start the inning. Tommy Bell followed that up with a single to right field that was muffed and put both Lancers in scoring position.
 
Andrew Bash smoked a double just inside the left-field line and into the corner to score both runners easily. A walk to Mota and wild pitch then put two in scoring position again with one out. Glenn drove in Bash with a sacrifice fly to left and then Biola recorded the second out of the inning.
 
Porter made it a one-run game, 7-6, with a two-run homer to right field. The Lancers kept the two-out rally going with a single from Rory Smith and then an RBI triple from Plaia tying the game.
 
Biola scored twice in the top of the ninth, but CBU did not give up. Glenn led off the bottom of the ninth with a single and a walk put two Lancers aboard and brought the winning run to the plate. The Eagles came up with the elusive final out to end the game and win it.