RIVERSIDE – Senior Day brought out a ton of emotions, memories and another victory for California Baptist University baseball in a doubleheader with UC Riverside on Friday at Totman Stadium.
The Lancers defeated the Highlanders 7-4 in game one for their 39
th win of the year, but UCR came back and won game two, 12-6, to snap its 15-game losing streak. CBU goes into the final game of the season with a 39-16 record, while UC Riverside is 15-35.
The Crosstown Showdown series and season will come to a close with a 1 p.m. game Saturday at the Riverside Sports Complex.
Friday was Senior Day for seven Lancers:
Matt Amrhein,
Chris Burica,
John Glenn,
Jacob McCarvel,
Chad Minato,
Nick Plaia and
Rory Smith. Each of them had an impact or moment to remember on the day.
Plaia had a Senior Day to remember, going 5-for-9 with three runs, a double and stolen base.
Chad Castillo went 4-for-7 on the day, while
Russell Stevenson and
Harrison Spohn both had three hits.
Amrhein and McCarvel added to their resumes in their final home game, as well. Amrhein secured his seventh win of the season and 19
th of his career. His 19 victories rank top nine in Lancer history and third in the NCAA era.
McCarvel made the 57
th appearance of his career and 25
th of the season. He ranks third in the NCAA era for career appearances, while his 25 appearances this year are the second most in CBU's single-season history.
WHERE THE TRANSITION RANKS
CBU is the first team to win 39 games in one of its first two transition seasons to NCAA Division I since Dallas Baptist won 44 in 2004. It's the most of any transitioning team in its second full NCAA Division I season out of 49 teams that have made the move since 1998.
Thirty-nine wins are a new single-season high for CBU in the D-I era, as well, after it won 35 games in its 2019 debut season. The Lancers have gone 74-35 over their first two full years in Division I (2019 and 2021), which is tied for the second 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 to win 74 games or more through their first two full Division I campaigns out of the 49 teams who have made the move to D-I since 1998.
SENIOR SENDOFF
CBU's seniors had their hand prints all over game on Friday. It was a back-and-forth game with three ties through the first six innings.
Plaia started his Senior Day with a 4-for-4 game that included two runs, a double and a stolen base. Smith went 2-for-4 with a run, double and run batted in in the opener, as well.
Amrhein earned the win on the mound after he gave up just three runs on five hits, three walks and struck out eight over six quality innings.
CJ Culpepper earned his 13
th save of the year to build on his single-season record at CBU and move him into top-two standing in Division I. Culpepper, the WAC Freshman of the Year, did so with a spotless ninth inning that included two strikeouts.
UC Riverside scored first in the top of the second, but
Damon Keith tied the game when he obliterated a pitch for a leadoff solo homer in the third inning. The Highlanders took back the lead with a run in the fifth, but a
John Glenn RBI single after a Smith double in the bottom half tied things again, 2-2.
UCR scratched out another run in the top of the sixth, but CBU took its first lead of the game with two runs in bottom of the sixth. Spohn and Plaia started the inning with a single and double back-to-back, respectively. A wild pitch scored Spohn and then an RBI grounder from
Mitchel Simon gave the Lancers a 4-3 lead.
CBU scratched out an insurance run in the seventh.
Garret Ostrander led off with a double and came around to score on a sacrifice fly from Castillo for an important insurance run for a 5-3 CBU cushion. UCR got a run back with a solo homer in the eighth, but the Lancers scored a pair in the bottom of the eighth after singles from Plaia,
Russell Stevenson and Smith (RBI) and a wild pitch capped the scoring at 7-4.
In game two, CBU came all the way back from a 6-1 deficit to force a 6-6 tie in the eighth inning. The Highlanders then put together a six-run ninth inning to secure the win and split the doubleheader.
Stevenson went 2-for-4 with three RBI, while Castillo was 3-for-4 in the game. Spohn and Simon also had a pair of hits in the nightcap.
A solo homer from Stevenson got CBU on the board in the second inning, cutting the Lancers' deficit in half, 2-1, after UCR scored a run in the first and second innings. The Highlanders went on to score the next four runs to take a 6-1 advantage.
The Lancers began chipping away with a two-run sixth. Plaia led off the inning with a single and Simon and Ostrander each had an RBI single to make it a three-run game, 6-3. Stevenson brought CBU back within a run, 6-5, with a two-run single in the seventh. Simon tied the game with a solo homer in the eighth.
SENIOR DAY
This year's group of seniors were an incredibly influential group from top to bottom. They helped lead the Lancers to one of the best-ever transitions to NCAA Division I. Overall, the Lancers have gone 151-81 and won back-to-back Western Athletic Conference Championships with these seniors.
There were several other Senior Day highlights, but the most memorable was right after the very first pitch of the day.
Chad Minato, whose season came to an early end due to an injury, got the start for the final time in his career in the day's opener. The fifth-year senior and transfer from Harvard was subbed out of the game after a pitchout to start the game, and stopped to embrace his teammates on his way to the dugout in a Senior Day moment that will always be remembered.
