Lancers, Lopes Open Final WAC Series of the Season

Thursday, May 20

Phoenix

6 PM

California Baptist University

35-14, 27-6

Grand Canyon

35-17-1, 28-5

California Baptist

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Andrew Shortall

Lancers, Lopes Open Final WAC Series of the Season

5/20/2021 8:17:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Andrew Shortall, Director of Athletics Communications

PHOENIX – The two top baseball teams in the Western Athletic Conference opened their winner-take-all series as California Baptist University traveled to Grand Canyon for the final conference series of the season.

CBU outhit the 29^th-ranked Lopes and got another strong start from ace pitcher Chris Burica, but fell short to GCU in game one on a 5-1 score on Thursday night at Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark.

It snaps the Lancers' 10-game road winning streak, as they move to 35-14 overall and 27-6 in the WAC this year. Grand Canyon has now won nine-straight games and 10 in a row at home to improve to 35-17, 28-5.

Burica threw his fifth complete game and eighth quality start of the season, as he threw through the eighth for sixth time.

CBU's nine hits outnumbered the Lopes' seven. Seven different Lancers had a hit on the night, while John Glenn (2-for-4) and Connor Clift (2-for-3) had a team-high two hits. Clift, Russell Stevenson and Marty Munoz doubled in the game, while Chad Castillo homered for the Lancers' lone run on the night.

CHAD CASTILLO LEAVES THE BUILDING 🚀 #LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/MOhEGyfRzw
— California Baptist Baseball (@CBUbaseball) May 21, 2021

Situational hitting and defense was the difference in the game. The Lopes were errorless, while the Lancers had three on Thursday. Offensively, CBU went 0-13 with runners on base, 0-7 with them in scoring position and 2-11 with two outs. Grand Canyon was 4-12, 1-7 and 6-14 in those categories, respectively.

The Lancers will need to win out over the next three games if they want to clinch the 2021 WAC title outright. CBU can secure a share of the regular-season crown if it can win two of the next three. The series continues with a doubleheader on Friday at 2 p.m. and wraps up with a 1 p.m. game on Saturday.

It's not easy, but Harrison Spohn sure makes it look that way.#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/vNx1OMgEHg
— California Baptist Baseball (@CBUbaseball) May 21, 2021

BURICA'S BRINGING IT
Burica, a two-time WAC Pitcher of the Week this season, continued to put together one of the best seasons of any pitcher in the conference and the country this year. He pitched through the eighth inning for the sixth time in his 14 starts this season.

It was Burica's eighth quality start on the year, as well, as he allowed just three earned runs on seven hits, a walk and struck out three. He retired the Lopes in order in the second, sixth and seventh innings.

LOPES AT A GLANCE
Grand Canyon entered the Collegiate Baseball Top-30 rankings in NCAA Division I, as it debuted at No. 29 this week. GCU has won seven consecutive four-game series in the WAC and is 20-3 since April. The Lopes are one of only 13 teams nationally to rank in the top 50 in batting average (35^th, .292) and ERA (42^nd, 4.00).