PHOENIX – California Baptist University made its Western Athletic Conference debut on the road on Brazell Field of Grand Canyon, the preseason favorite and two-time reigning regular-season champion.
The Lancers hung right with the Lopes but were a couple big hits away from taking out GCU in a 3-0 loss on Friday night. CBU got 4.2 shutout innings from its bullpen and big doubles from
Nick Plaia and
Harrison Spohn in the loss.
It brings CBU's record to 14-8, 0-1 in the WAC, while GCU opens up at 11-10, 1-0. The Lopes, who also boast a win over No. 18 TCU, have won three of the last four conference titles, and have also won 17 consecutive WAC series, with a 40-9 record in the conference the last two seasons.
Game two is scheduled for a 6 p.m. first pitch on Saturday at Brazell Field, as CBU looks to even the series, which wraps up Sunday at noon.
Travis Booth got CBU off to a great start on Friday and held the Lopes scoreless through the first two innings. An error led to two GCU runs in the bottom of the third, with the inning coming to a close when
Chad Castillo gunned down a Lope at the plate for the third out.
Spohn made several great plays at shortstop, and came close to getting CBU on the board in the eighth. The sophomore crushed a 1-2 pitch to dead center and nearly sent it out of the park, but it just bounced off the wall to keep him to a double.
The Lopes added another run in the third before
Seth Kaneen, Amrhein and
Mason McGarvey combined to shutout GCU over the final 14 outs. Amrhein threw four shutout innings in which he allowed just two hits, two walks and struck out five.
