RIVERSIDE – California Baptist University baseball opened the 2021 season with a dominant 9-1 home win over No. 33 ranked Pepperdine on Friday night at Totman Stadium.
Everything seemed to be working for the Lancers, who got a quality start from
Bryan Pope, strong relief pitching from
Jacob McCarvel and
CJ Culpepper and a big-time offensive performances from
Damon Keith and
Chad Castillo.
CBU opens the season 1-0, while Pepperdine begins 0-1. Pepperdine enters 2021 ranked No. 33 by Collegiate Baseball and receiving votes in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. The Waves were picked to win the West Coast Conference this season in the league's preseason poll.
Pope set the tone and picked up right where he left off in 2020. He struck out a career-high nine batters, and had his bid for a no-hitter broken up in the fourth. He pitched five scoreless innings in which he allowed just two walks and one hit.
Keith went 3-for-5 with two home runs, three runs batted in and two more scored. Castillo finished 3-for-4 with two doubles, two RBI and two more runs scored.
Culpepper earned the six-out save by allowing just one hit, one walk and striking out three batters. The Lancers' pitchers combined for 15 strikeouts, with McCarvel adding three more over two innings.
Keith delivered CBU's first run of the season in a big way. The sophomore went opposite field on a 1-2 pitch for a solo home run in the bottom of the first.
The Lancers tacked on an insurance run in the sixth. Castillo and Keith led off the inning with a double and single, respectively, and an error allowed Castillo to score to make it 2-0.
Pepperdine got on the board in the seventh, but CBU added two more runs back in the bottom half of the inning.
David Martin started the inning with a single and a four-pitch walk to
Chad Minato and an error loaded the bases with no outs. Castillo drove in a run on a full-count single into right and a sacrifice fly from
John Glenn made it 4-1 Lancers.
CBU really opened things up with a five-run outburst in the eighth inning. The Lancers used four hits to do the damage.
CJ Masciel led things off with a single and
Harrison Spohn doubled him home on a perfectly executed hit-and-run.
Castillo brought home another run with his second double of the game into the gap, and Keith provided the exclamation point with his second home run on a no-doubt shot to left.
CASTILLO AND KEITH
Both Castillo and Keith have been named top prospects for the 2021 Major League Baseball Draft and they showed why on Friday. In the Perfect Game's NCAA Top-200 for the upcoming draft, Castillo is ranked 139 and Keith checks in at No. 165. Castillo was also named to the Preseason All-Western Athletic Conference Team for the second year in a row in 2021.
PEPPERDINE AT A GLANCE
The Waves have a rich baseball history, as it has won 18 West Coast Conference titles, most recently in 2018 and are the favorites to win the WCC again in 2021. Pepperdine has made 28 NCAA Tournament appearances. They're coming off an impressive 12-3 showing last year, which led to them being ranked as high as No. 14 in the NCAA.
UP NEXT
The Lancers and Waves will continue their series in Malibu on Saturday at noon. The game will be streamed live on the
West Coast Conference Network, with
live stats provided by Pepperdine on
StatBroadcast and a
Lancers' radio stream on CBULancers.com.
