RIVERSIDE, Calif. – A dominant start from
Travis Booth led California Baptist University to its second shutout of the NCAA Division I era, as it defeated Pacific in the four-game series opener, 6-0, on Thursday night.
Booth matched his career high for strikeouts with nine over eight innings. The redshirt senior allowed just three hits and a walk against the 29 batters he faced.
Bryan Pope then threw a 1-2-3 ninth inning, which included two strikeouts, to secure the shutout.
While the Lancers only used two pitchers, the Tigers burned through six in the series opener as CBU collected 10 hits in the game.
Luke Navigato,
Ryan Mota and
John Glenn all had two hits in the game.
CBU improves to 10-3 this season, while Pacific drops to 9-3 in this series that includes two of the hottest mid-major teams in NCAA Division I. The series continues Friday through Sunday, with those games starting at 6 p.m., 5 p.m. and 1 p.m., respectively.
Booth was perfect through the first two innings on Thursday, and took a no-hitter into the fourth after a hit by pitch in the third. He retired the side in order in the first, second, fifth and sixth innings and was really only in danger twice.
The Tigers led off the fourth with a double, but Booth quickly retired the next three batters with a grounder to third and consecutive strikeouts. Pacific got two runners aboard in the eighth on a single and a walk, but Booth for the final out on a fielder's choice grounder to short.
CBU's offense quickly got Booth a lead to work with.
Damon Keith led off the bottom of the first with a walk and a double from Navigato set up a sacrifice fly for
Andrew Bash.
The Lancers broke the game open in the fifth after another leadoff walk from Keith. Navigato singled to put two on with no outs before a sneaky bunt single from Andrew, forced a throwing error that scored Keith and put runners at the corners.
A run-scoring single from Mota made it 3-0 before
Harrison Spohn landed the big blow of the game, with a two-out homer to left field making it 5-0. Three-straight walks to open the eighth set up an RBI grounder from Capolupo to cap the scoring.
