EDINBURG – California Baptist University baseball battled back from a three-run deficit to force a tie in its series finale at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in the top of the ninth. The Vaqueros ultimately claimed the 4-3 victory in the bottom of the ninth on Saturday at the UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
Harrison Spohn led the Lancers' offense Saturday, with a three-hit game, while
Damon Keith went 2-for-4. On the mound, CBU got strong performances from
Drew Necochea and
Jacob McCarvel.
Nevertheless, the Lancers' 12-game conference winning streak, which was tops in NCAA Division I and dated back to 2019, comes to a close. CBU moves to 18-7 overall and 11-1 in the WAC, while UTRGV moves to 13-15, 5-7.
Necochea put together a career-best performance in his second start of the season on Saturday. He threw a career-high six innings and retired 10-straight batters at one point – a streak that carried over from the first inning through the fourth. He allowed just three hits, one walk, no earned runs and struck out four.
PLAY-BY-PLAY
UTRGV scored its first three runs in a disastrous fifth inning for the Lancers. All three runs were unearned, as the Vaqueros scored them on one hit and three errors.
CBU fought back and scored two runs in the seventh. Keith led off the inning with a single and came around to score on a two-out RBI double from Spohn.
Connor Clift then delivered an RBI single to cut the Lancers' deficit to one, 3-2.
The Lancers tied the game in the ninth. The inning started on one-out singles from
Chad Castillo and Spohn. A fielder's choice from Clift put runners at the corners with two outs.
David Martin brought in the tying run with a hard shot in the hole between shortstop and third base.
McCarvel threw two shutout innings in the seventh and eighth. He struck out a pair and did not allow a base runner until a leadoff double in the bottom of the ninth.
UTRGV moved the runner to third on a sacrifice bunt and then scored the winning run on a squeeze bunt.
WAC STANDINGS
The Lancers maintain their first-place standing in the WAC at 11-1 in conference play. Sacramento State is in second place with a 10-2 league record, while Grand Canyon was in third place (8-3) going into its final game of the week Saturday at Utah Valley. NM State is not far off in fourth place (8-4).
UP NEXT
Although the Lancers return to California next week, CBU's 11-game road trip will continue with a three-game series at Cal State Fullerton. The Lancers and Titans are set to open the week on Friday, April 9.
