BASE PREVIEW: Lancers Wrap Up 10-Game Homestand with WAC Opener vs. GCU

Friday, March 4

Riverside, Calif.

6 PM

California Baptist University

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Zac Zeman zaczeman.com

BASE PREVIEW: Lancers Wrap Up 10-Game Homestand with WAC Opener vs. GCU

3/1/2022 8:30:00 AM | Baseball

By: Andrew Shortall, Director of Athletics Communications

RIVERSIDE – California Baptist University baseball made it through week two of the season as one of 18 teams still undefeated in NCAA Division I.

The Lancers are headed into their biggest test of the young campaign this week, as they open up Western Athletic Conference play against defending regular-season and tournament champion Grand Canyon.

A little Sunday 🧹 at Totman#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/IEu949WG9M
— California Baptist Baseball (@CBUbaseball) February 28, 2022

This week will wrap up CBU's 10-game homestand to open the season. The Lancers are 7-0 after sweeping Coppin State and Purdue Fort Wayne in the first two weeks of 2022. GCU is 3-4 after a tough non-conference slate against Nevada, No. 11 Arizona and UC Irvine.

Season tickets are on sale now at CBULancers.com/baseballtickets, with prices at $99 for adults and $60 for children. Individual games can also be purchased HERE.

HITTER OF THE WEEK
Jake Skipworth was named the WAC Hitter of the Week on Monday. CBU has secured the first two after Chad Castillo received the honor to open the season. Skipworth hit .615 and slugged 1.154 with eight hits, nine runs batted in, five runs scored, four doubles and a homer in the four-game sweep of Purdue Fort Wayne.

🏆 𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 🏆

Congratulations to Jake Skipworth on being named the @WACsports Hitter of the Week after he hit .615 and slugged 1.154 with eight hits and nine RBI. #LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/D5cxhmgb9r
— California Baptist Baseball (@CBUbaseball) February 28, 2022

LANCERS AT A GLANCE
CBU enters this week hitting .325, slugging .504 and maintain a .455 on-base percentage as a team. A total of seven of the Lancers' regular starters are hitting above .300: Michael Carpentier (.778), Skipworth (.591), Harrison Spohn (.480), Chad Castillo (.444), Connor Clift (.375), Josh Paino (.333) and CJ Masciel (.308).

As a pitching staff, CBU maintains a 2.57 earned-run average, 1.10 WHIP and .212 batting average against. CJ Culpepper and Anthony Silvas are the only two Lancers to start two games this year, and each has yet to allow a run. Drew Necochea leads the Lancers with 11.2 innings pitched, including a start, while Jared Villalobos has made a team-high three appearances out of the bullpen and Brett Finnel has the only save this year.

SERIES INFORMATION
Opponent: Grand Canyon
Dates/Times: Friday, March 4 (6 p.m.); Saturday, March 5 (5 p.m.); Sunday, March 6 (12 p.m.)
Location: Riverside, Calif. (Totman Stadium)
Video: ESPN+: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
Live Stats: StatBroadcast: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3

SERIES NOTES
Grand Canyon is CBU's most familiar foe in the WAC, as the two were conference foes in the PacWest in 2012 and 2013. The Lopes own a 68-16-1 advantage in the all-time series, which began in 1967, but CBU has gone 13-8 versus Grand Canyon in the Gary Adcock era since the series picked back up in 2005.

This will be the first time since 2012 the Lopes will visit Riverside. The Lancers won that series 3-1. Most recently, the four-game series in 2021 was evenly split, with CBU winning the second (5-3) and final game of the series (6-1) to clinch a share of the WAC regular-season title with the Lopes.

The Lancers won their first-ever WAC series with GCU in Arizona in 2019, with 8-0 and 4-1 wins in the final two games after GCU took the opener, 3-0. It ended the Lopes' 17 conference series winning streak in the WAC, the longest such streak in the nation at that point.

CBU also went 8-4 against the Lopes in the PacWest era. GCU dominated the series early on, going 60-3-1 over the first 64 games in the series played from 1967 to 1983. It was 18 years until the two met again in 2005.

LOPES AT A GLANCE
Grand Canyon has impressed against top competition this year, including preseason Mountain West Conference favorite Nevada and preseason top-20 ranked UC Irvine and a single game versus No. 11 Arizona.

Last week, the Lopes blasted Arizona in a 19-3 victory and took a game off UCI on Sunday (4-3) after playing the Anteaters close in Irvine in the first two games, 4-3 and 4-2. They opened the season at home with a series loss to Nevada, although GCU picked up a 15-4 win in the series finale.

Before coming to Riverside, Grand Canyon will stop off in La Jolla for a mid-week game at UC San Diego on Tuesday. GCU has opened the season hitting .279, slugging .414 and maintain a .377 on-base percentage. As a pitching staff, the Lopes have a 4.72 earned-run average, 1.30 WHIP and .251 batting average against.

Offensively, Grand Canyon has four players hitting above .300. Elijah Buries is having a dominant start to the year, hitting .438, slugging .563 with four doubles and is maintaining a .472 OBP. Jonny Weaver is also hitting .412, slugging .588 and has a .476 OBP. Homer Bush Jr. is hitting .357 and Maxwell Andeel is hitting .308 and slugging .615.

Nick Hull, Carter Young, Hunter Omlid have all logged two starts on the mound this season, while Connor Markl appears to be a go-to arm, as well. Hull and Young both have 3.86 ERAs, WHIPs below 1.20 and BAAs below .245 over 9.1 innings pitched.

Markl leads the Lopes in innings pitched with 10 and has a 0.90 ERA, .70 WHIP, .143 opposing batting average and a 2-0 record after starting the first five innings of GCU's win at Arizona and throwing five of the final six innings at Irvine on Sunday.

Brodie Cooper-Vasslakis and R.J. Elmore lead Grand Canyon with three appearances, while Vince Reilly has the one save. He has a perfect ERA, 0.50 WHIP and has yet to give up a hit over two innings of relief pitching.