RIVERSIDE – California Baptist University secured its first series win of the season with another all-around performance in an 8-2 win over Houston Baptist on Saturday.
Chris Burica turned in his second-straight quality start, while the Lancers' offense provided plenty of run support in back-to-back games against the Huskies. The Lancers will go for the sweep against HBU on Sunday, with game time being moved up to an 11 a.m. start at Totman Stadium.
CBU has now won three of its last four games to improve to 4-5 on the year, while Houston Baptist drops to 2-9.
Up against Houston Baptist's ace pitcher (Kyle Gruller),
Nick Plaia and
Rory Smith both went 2-for-3.
Chad Castillo also had two hits, including his second home run of the year -- a two-run bomb. Plaia doubled and scored twice, while Smith also drove in two runs.
Burica gave up five hits, no walks and two runs, while striking out five in six innings. Three arms came out of the bullpen:
Matt Amrhein,
Mason McGarvey and
Jorge Valerio ended the game with three shutout innings for the Lancers.
Amrhein struck out two batters in the seventh, while McGarvey got a key double-play grounder in the eighth. Valerio worked his way around a hit and walk in a scoreless ninth.
Both teams were kept off the board through the first three-and-a-half innings, but two errors opened the door for four Lancer runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Harrison Spohn scored after a leadoff walk and back-to-back defensive miscues from HBU for the first run of the game. True freshman
David Martin came on as a pinch-hitter, worked his way into a 2-0 count and drove an RBI single into right field for the second run.
With two runners on an no outs, Smith landed the big blow of the inning when he bounced a single over the second baseman's head and into the outfield to score two more runs.
Houston Baptist made things interesting when it scored a pair on three hits in the sixth to bring the score to 4-2. The Lancers added an insurance run in the seventh. Plaia led off the inning with a double, moved to third on a bunt single from
Chad Castillo and then scored on a suicide squeeze bunt from
Harrison Spohn.
The Lancers added even more insurance with three more runs in the eighth. Smith led off the inning with a single and then on Plaia's second double in as many at-bats. Castillo capped the scoring with a two-run bomb to right center field.
