Lancers Sweep Doubleheader at UTRGV to Run WAC Winning Streak to 12 Games

Friday, April 2

Edinburg, Texas

11 AM

California Baptist University

17-6, 10-0

UT Rio Grande Valley

12-14, 4-6

California Baptist

UT Rio Grande Valley

Photo by: Kara Lara/UTRGV Athletics

Lancers Sweep Doubleheader at UTRGV to Run WAC Winning Streak to 12 Games

4/2/2021 5:05:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Andrew Shortall, Director of Athletics Communications

EDINBURG – Dominant relief pitching and just enough offense kept California Baptist University baseball undefeated in the Western Athletic Conference, as the Lancers swept their doubleheader at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Friday.

CBU won both games on scores of 3-2 and CJ Culpepper got the save both times to stretch his save total to nine on the year. It stretches the Lancers' WAC winning streak to 12 games, as they improve to 18-6, 11-0 in conference and drop UTRGV to 12-15, 4-7. The series will end with a final game on Saturday at 8 a.m. Pacific.

😱😱😱

CJ Culpepper logs his second save of the day and ninth of the season to build on his @WACsports and NCAA Division I lead!#LanceUp⚔ | @NCAACWS pic.twitter.com/1yPeRWUcfC
— California Baptist Baseball (@CBUbaseball) April 2, 2021

Those 12-straight wins make for the longest D-I conference winning streak in the country for the Lancers, which dates back to 2019. UC Irvine ranks second with its nine-game Big West Conference streak, as it goes into a league series at CSUN.

LANCERS WIN❗️

CBU stretches its @WACsports winning streak to 12 games with a doubleheader sweep of UTRGV. It's the longest conference winning streak in the country and dates back to 2019, as the Lancers improve to 18-6 and 11-0 in the WAC this season.#LanceUp⚔ pic.twitter.com/dBo5we7X65
— California Baptist Baseball (@CBUbaseball) April 2, 2021

Culpepper's nine saves this season give him a two-save cushion over the rest of the NCAA Division I pitchers and a five-save lead over any WAC pitcher. His nine saves are also a new NCAA-era, single-season record for CBU. Caleb Dirks previously held the record at eight saves back in 2014. Charlie Eckenrod holds the Lancers' all-time single season saves record at 10 saves from 2001.

John Glenn extended his hitting streak to seven games with hits in both games on Friday and three on the day overall. Nick Plaia also hit his way aboard in both games to give himself a four-game hitting streak.

GAME ONE
Another strong all-around pitching performance and just enough offense got the Lancers the 3-2 win in game one Friday. Damon Keith went 3-for-3 with two runs scored in the game.

Glenn landed the big blow of the game, with a two-run single up the middle in the top of the first inning. It scored Nick Plaia, who led off the game with a full-count double, and Keith, who drew a full-count walk.

John Glenn plates two, and the Lancers take an early 2-0 lead!#LanceUp⚔ pic.twitter.com/0RRSK9oFCq
— California Baptist Baseball (@CBUbaseball) April 2, 2021

Starting pitcher Bryan Pope threw five strong innings for CBU. He allowed just five hits, two runs, no walks and struck out six through five innings.

Doubles from Keith and Caballero led to CBU's third run and a 3-1 lead in the third inning, with Caballero driving in Keith with two outs.

Ulises Caballero with the Lancers' third double of the day and the Lancers are back up by two! #LanceUp⚔ pic.twitter.com/6WQeMHpkyD
— California Baptist Baseball (@CBUbaseball) April 2, 2021

UTRGV scored on an error in the first inning and got into the bullpen with back-to-back singles to start the sixth. Jacob McCarvel and CJ Culpepper shut the door on the Vaqueros, as they did not allow a base runner over the final two innings.

McCarvel got consecutive groundouts to limit the damage to one run, while Culpepper got the final out of the inning with a strikeout. Culpepper closed it out with a 1-2-3 seventh inning that included two grounders and another strikeout.

GAME TWO
For the first time in the series, UTRGV scored first with a run in the first inning of Friday's final game. In fact, the Lancers trailed the entire game before a pinch-hit, RBI single from Connor Clift scored the winning run and gave CBU the 3-2 lead in the top of the ninth.

🙌 𝘾𝙊𝙉𝙉𝙊𝙍 𝘾𝙇𝙄𝙁𝙏 🙌

He comes through in a pinch to give CBU a 3-2 lead in the ninth!#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/NhYVUmb04z
— California Baptist Baseball (@CBUbaseball) April 2, 2021

The Vaqueros' 1-0 lead was erased on a two-out, 1-2 RBI double from Harrison Spohn in the second. UTRGV went back in front, 2-1, with another run in the second inning. The Lancers tied the game again in the fourth.

Glenn got something started with a one-out double and finished the game with two hits. Russell Stevenson then drove in Glenn with an opposite-field, two-out single to knot the score at 2-2.

UTRGV put itself in great position to take the lead again when it put a runner on third with no outs. Matt Amrhein came on in relief for CBU and struck out three-straight batters to strand the runner at third and keep things tied.

In a jam❓

Call Matt Amrhein 🤙

He strikes out 3⃣ straight batters to leave the go-ahead run on third base.#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/OPSQ712Luu
— California Baptist Baseball (@CBUbaseball) April 2, 2021

Michael Carpentier then led off the ninth with a two-out double, which brought on pinch runner Reeve Holley and Clift to pinch hit. Clift came out first-pitch swinging and muscled a ball into shallow right center to allow Holley to score the winning run.

Amrhein got the first two outs of the ninth inning, but a two-out single brought back out Culpepper. He got the strikeout to end the game. Amrhein won his second of the season with 3.2 shutout innings in relief that included five strikeouts. Ryan Delgado also threw three shutout innings in relief for the Lancers.

WAC STANDINGS UPDATE
CBU is still the undefeated team in the WAC at 11-0. Sacramento State is in second place with a 10-2 league record, while Grand Canyon is in third at 8-3 after it lost a game at Utah Valley Friday. NM State is in fourth place at 8-4. Both Sacramento State and NM State are off from WAC play this week.