FULLERTON – California Baptist University baseball's offense carried it to a 9-7 win over Cal State Fullerton in Sunday's series finale at Goodwin Field. The Lancers erupted for four extra-base hits, including two multi-run homers in the game.
Connor Clift headlined the day with a career game at Goodwin Field. The catcher had two hits and four runs batted in on an RBI double and three-run homer. It was the first career home run for Clift.
Damon Keith (three runs, two RBI) and
Chad Castillo also had two-hits game for the Lancers.
Drew Necochea gave CBU a great start on the mound. He allowed just one run on three hits, two walks and struck out four over five innings.
Jacob McCarvel,
Matt Amrhein and
CJ Culpepper combined to close out the final four innings for the Lancers.
CBU is still receiving votes in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's NCAA Division I Top-30 rankings and improves its season record to 19-9. Cal State Fullerton moves to 12-15 on the year.
Cal State Fullerton looked to pull off a dramatic comeback in the ninth. The Titans loaded the bases with no outs and went on to score three in the inning, but Culpepper settled down and ended the game with a big strikeout and consecutive grounders.
TITANS AT A GLANCE
Cal State Fullerton has won more than 75 percent of its home games at Goodwin Field since late 1992, with a 611-205 record. While under .500 at this point, the Titans have played a difficult schedule so far and own impressive wins over USC (5-0), Utah (15-1 and 3-1) and San Diego (3-1 and 5-1).
CSUF is one of the most storied baseball programs in not only California but the country. The Titans have made 40 NCAA Tournaments, with 27-straight appearances from 1992-2018, and reached 18 College World Series (last in 2017) with national titles won in 1979, 1984, 1995 and 2004. Cal State Fullerton has also won 30 Big West Conference championships, with its most recent in 2018, and has never had a losing season.
PLAY-BY-PLAY
The Lancers scored their first three runs with two outs on Sunday. They took their first lead of the series in the second inning when Castillo was hit by a pitch and Clift brought him in with a double to the fence in center field. A leadoff walk to
Chad Minato in the third inning came back to haunt the Titans when Keith hit a two-out homer to give CBU a 3-0 lead.
Every time the Titans scored the Lancers had a response. CSUF got on the board, with a run on two hits in the fourth inning. CBU got the run back in the fifth. Minato led off the inning with a double, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt from
Nick Plaia and scored on a
Harrison Spohn sacrifice fly to make it 4-1.
Three more CBU runs scored in the sixth on Clift's three-run homer.
John Glenn and Castillo set the table with a leadoff walk and one-out single, respectively.
Cal State Fullerton plated a pair in the sixth to make it a four-run game, 7-3, but the Lancers scored again in the seventh inning for an 8-3 advantage. Four-straight, one-out singles from Keith, Glenn,
Ulises Caballero (RBI) and Castillo did the damage for CBU.
The Titans looked to cut into the lead even further when they put their first two runners on base in the eighth. Amrhein got a big double-play grounder and Culpepper stranded a runner at third to end the threat and keep it an 8-4 game.
UP NEXT
The Lancers will resume Western Athletic Conference play next week, with a road trip to Dixie State for a four-game series April 16-18. The Trailblazers will be a familiar opponent, as they were a PacWest foe of CBU from 2012-18 and is in the first year of their transition to NCAA Division I.
CBU is still in first place in the WAC standings at 11-1 in league play, while Sacramento State (13-3), Grand Canyon (12-4) and NM State (9-7) rounded out the top-four teams.
