LAS CRUCES – California Baptist University baseball's power surge continued in its Western Athletic Conference series opener at NM State on Friday.
The Lancers hit three home runs in a 9-2 win over the Aggies at Presley Askew Field, as they've now hit seven bombs over the last two games. CBU improves to 14-6 and 3-4 in the WAC, while NMSU drops to 10-9, 2-5. The series continues Saturday with first pitch at 4 p.m. Pacific and ends Sunday at 11 a.m.
Harrison Spohn,
Chad Castillo and
Jake Skipworth each homered in the victory and were part of the Lancers' 1-2-3-4 hitters combining to hit 10-for-18 with seven runs batted in and seven more scored.
David Martin went 2-for-3 with three runs and two walks out of the leadoff spot. Spohn collected a career-high four hits, two runs, two RBI and two doubles as the No. 2 hitter, while Castillo was 2-for-5 with a career-high RBI at No. 3. Clean-up hitter Skipwroth was 2-for-5, as well.
Not to be overlooked was CBU pitcher
CJ Culpepper's third quality start this year. He threw a career-high 7.2 innings in which he gave up two runs on five hits, a walk and struck out four. He retired 12-straight batters at one point, with three-up, three-down innings in the third through fifth innings.
Jared Villalobos was sharp in relief, giving up just one walk and striking out two over the final 1.1 innings.
PLAY-BY-PLAY
CBU scored in the top of the first inning after a lead-off walk to Martin, a Spohn single and RBI grounder from Castillo. NM State tied the game with a solo homer in the second, but the Lancers hit back-to-back homers in the third on a two-run shot from Spohn and then a Castillo blast two pitches later. It gave CBU a 4-1 lead.
Castillo drove in his third and fourth runs of the game with a two-run single that scored Martin (walk) and Spohn (double) in the fifth to make it a 6-1 cushion. The Aggies got a run back in the seventh, but the Lancers added to their advantage with three runs in the eighth.
Skipworth led off the frame with his homer, while
Ulises Caballero hit a two-run double that scored
Mitchel Simon and
Marty Munoz (single).
CONFERENCE OUTLOOK
CBU's win broke a three-way tie for fourth place in the WAC West Division standings with NMSU (2-5) and Sacramento State (2-4). Grand Canyon leads the division with an undefeated 6-0 conference record, while Seattle U (5-2) and Dixie State (6-4) are in second and third. It's tight the rest of the way with Utah Valley (2-7) also holding two conference wins in seventh. GCU and Sacramento State were set to start their WAC series Friday night in Sacramento.
