RIVERSIDE – Fresh off winning a share of the Western Athletic Conference title for the second time in as many chances, California Baptist University baseball will look to ride the wave of emotions into what is always an exciting series with UC Riverside.

The Lancers and Highlanders' four-game Crosstown Showdown will be the final series of the season for both teams and split between CBU's Totman Stadium and UCR's Riverside Sports Complex. CBU comes in with a 37-15 overall record and 29-7 WAC run. UC Riverside is 14-33 overall and 12-28 in the Big West Conference.

CBU has not lost a series for six weeks in a row, with three sweeps and three splits over that span. Overall, the Lancers are 18-6 over their last 24 games and have not dropped a series in nearly a month and a half.

UC Riverside has just finished a tough stretch in the ultra-competitive Big West Conference and has lost 13-straight games as a result against conference powers UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine and Long Beach State. The Highlanders have played a challenging schedule this season, with just four games against a non-Big West opponent – the University of San Diego.

SERIES NOTES
The 2019 season was the first time in 20 years UC Riverside and CBU played a countable game. The Highlanders have won 22 of the 28 games with the Lancers, although this is just the third official matchup between UCR and CBU in the Gary Adcock era, as the two had previously not met since 1999. UCR has gone 13-3 against CBU on its home field and has gone 9-3 at Totman Stadium.

UC Riverside has gone 5-1 against the Lancers over the last two years, but four of those games were decided by three runs or less. CBU last defeated the Highlanders 3-1 at Totman Stadium on Feb. 23, 2020, with Chris Burica and Matt Amrhein playing a big part in the win.

SENIOR DAY
Friday's doubleheader at Totman Stadium will be Senior Day for the Lancers' seven graduating seniors: Matt Amrhein, Chris Burica, John Glenn, Jacob McCarvel, Chad Minato, Nick Plaia and Rory Smith. The Senior Day ceremony will take place approximately 15 minutes before first pitch, This group has led the Lancers to one of the best-ever transitions to NCAA Division I.

CBU has won 72 games over its first two full D-I seasons, which puts them in rare company when it comes to its D-I transition. Overall, the Lancers have gone 149-80 since 2017 and won back-to-back WAC Championships with these seniors.

SERIES INFORMATION
Opponent: UC Riverside
Dates/Times: Thursday, May 27 (6 p.m.) at Riverside Sports Complex; Friday, May 28 (3 p.m.) at Totman Stadium; Saturday, May 29 (1 p.m.) at Riverside Sports Complex
Live Stats: Sidearm – Games 1 & 4 | StatBroadcast – Game 2 | Game 3
Video: Big West TV – Games 1 & 4 | WAC Digital Network – Game 2 
CBU Radio: Sidearm – Game 1 | Game 3 | Game 4
The second game of Friday's doubleheader at Totman Stadium will feature an audio stream and live stats only, no video stream.

WHERE THE TRANSITION RANKS
Saturday's win gave CBU the most victories of team in its second full NCAA Division I season out of 49 teams that have made the move since 1998. The Lancers 37 wins surpass Florida Gulf Coast for that honor, as the Eagles previously held that mark after their 36-18 season in 2009.

Thirty-seven wins are a new single-season high for CBU in the D-I era after it won 35 games in its 2019 debut season. The Lancers have gone 72-35 in their first two full D-I seasons (2019 and 2021), which are the third most wins by a program in its first two full D-I seasons.

Dallas Baptist (76-39) and Florida Gulf Coast (74-33) are the only two teams with more wins through their first two full Division I campaigns out of 49 teams who have made the move to D-I since 1998.

CBU went 35-20 and won a share of the WAC title in its first Division I season in 2019 and had the 2020 campaign cut short after 15 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Lancers' 35 wins ranked third for a first-first year D-I program.

To put the achievement into perspective, six teams have made the transition to Division I since 2019: North Alabama (2019), UC San Diego (2021), Bellarmine (2021), Merrimack (2021), Dixie State (2021) and Tarleton State (2021). Those six teams averaged 18.6 wins in its first D-I season, with Dixie State's 23 currently serving as a most wins out of that group. North Alabama is the only team in that group to play two full D-I seasons and has gone 23-78 in 2019 and 2021.

HISTORY IN THE MAKING
After having their senior seasons cut short in 2020, Glenn and Amrhein returned for another run with the Lancers and are looking to set as much history as possible before their careers come to a close.

Both have taken over all-time records in CBU history in the last two weeks. Amrhein is CBU's career leader in appearances with 83, while Glenn has the most runs batted in in program history with 188.

Amrhein is the only pitcher in program history to log at least 18 wins and eight saves. He ranks seventh in Lancer history in saves, 12^th in victories and 12^th with a 2.98 earned-run average. In the NCAA era, he ranks first in appearances, third in saves and wins, fourth in batting average against (.230), seventh with 169.1 innings pitched and 155 strikeouts and eighth in ERA.

Glenn is not far off two other all-time records, as he ranks second in program history with 844 at-bats (24 off the lead) and 413 total bases (13 off the lead). The first baseman also ranks third in hits (274), seventh in doubles (46), eighth in home runs (30) all time all time. In the NCAA era, the first baseman is the career leader in hits, RBI, doubles, total bases, at-bats, games played (224) and games started (214) and ranks second in homers and runs (142).

HIGHLANDERS AT A GLANCE
Like the rest of the world, UC Riverside underwent a lot of change in 2020 but the Highlanders had more than most after Coach and Major League Baseball pitching legend Troy Percival resigned after five seasons at the helm of the program last November. Associate Head Coach Justin Johnson was promoted to Interim Head Coach.    

The Highlanders come into the week hitting .263 as a team and with a 7.38 ERA as a pitching staff. They have struggled defensively, with a .963 fielding percentage and giving up 71 stolen bases on an 83.5 percent success rate (71-85) while managing just 26 stolen bases themselves.

Of course, those numbers have come in UC Riverside's challenging schedule. The Highlanders have played 16 games against teams currently in receiving votes in Division I, but they have a number of impressive wins among their 14 this year.

UCR twice defeated a UC Irvine team that is a top-15 ranked team in four different polls, got two wins against UC San Diego, Cal Poly and UC Davis, a 3-1 series victory over CSUN and single-game wins versus Cal State Fullerton, Hawaii and CSU Bakersfield.

Offensively, six UC Riverside players are hitting .280 or above: Nathan Webb, Ely Stuart, Dylan Orick, Anthony Mata, Joey Nicolai and Travis Bohall. Webb leads the group hitting .309, slugging .457, with a .389 on-base percentage and 36 RBI. Orick is a serious power threat, too, slugging .450 with 20 extra-base hits (16 doubles) and 30 RBI. Bohall is a speedster with a team-high 15 stolen bases on 19 attempts and 35 runs.

On the mound, Zach Jacobs (12), Tucker Juline (10), Tyler Frazier (eight) and Eric Marrujo (five) have each made at least five starts. Jacobs and Juline both have ERAs under 6.00 and at least 59 innings under their belt this year.

Jake Lachemann has been the team's closer with a team-high four saves, while Shamus Lyons is the most used reliever with 23 appearances that are five more than the next pitcher.