RIVERSIDE – California Baptist University baseball will look to strengthen its second-place standing in the Western Athletic Conference West Division with a home series against Utah Valley this weekend.

The Lancers went 2-2 last week with big road wins over Long Beach State and No. 29 Grand Canyon. It brought their record to 23-11 this season and 9-6 in conference play. Utah Valley has won back-to-back WAC series against Seattle U and Dixie State.

GCU still leads the WAC's West Division at 15-3 while Sacramento State and Dixie State are both tied for third 9-9 in league. Utah Valley and Seattle U are tied for fifth at 7-11 while NM State is in seventh at 4-11.

ON A STREAK
David Martin comes into this week on aa 15-game hitting streak, while Harrison Spohn has 10-striaght games with a hit and Michael Carpentier has eight. Martin has boosted his batting average to .435 and is slugging .630 with a .537 on-base percentage.

DOUBLE TROUBLE
Spohn has been a doubles machine for the Lancers, with 19 on the year, and is tied for the NCAA Division I lead coming into the week with UNLV's Joey Walls. Northwestern's Ethan O'Donnell and Holy Cross' Nick Wang also have 18 doubles this year.
 
Over his career, Spohn has 57 career doubles, which leads CBU's NCAA era by nine and is the third-most in team history. Matt Marnati (2010-13) holds the career lead for doubles with 69, while Steve Goins (2005-08) ranks second with 62.

WHERE CBU'S TRANSITION RANKS
The Lancers are the second team to win 40 games in one of its first two full transition seasons to Division I out of 49 teams that have made the move since 1998. Forty wins are a new single-season high for CBU in the D-I era after it won 35 games in 2019. The Lancers are 98-47 over their first three full years in Division I (2019, 2021-22), which is already the third most wins by a program in its first three full D-I seasons.
 
Overall, CBU has gone 105-55 in Division I seasons. Its win total is three games off top-10 standing among first-year Division I teams since 1998, despite the 2020 season being canceled just 15 games in due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Lancers' 65.6 winning percentage ranks first among transitioning D1 programs, with Stony Brook (64.7, 112-61); Florida Gulf Coast (63.1, 139-81) and Dallas Baptist (61.2, 139-88) being the only teams to win at least 110 games at 60-percent clip or higher.

SERIES NOTES
This will be the fourth series between CBU and Utah Valley. The Lancers have won nine of 10 games against the Wolverines after UVU took a game in the first series this year in Utah. In March, CBU won game one 6-0 and the finale 17-1 to avenge a 6-4 loss to the Wolverines in game two. California Baptist swept the first two series against Utah Valley in Riverside in 2019 and 2021.

SERIES INFORMATION
Opponent: Utah Valley
Date/Time: Friday, April 22 (6 p.m.); Saturday, April 23 (5 p.m.); Sunday, April 24 (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

A LOOK AT THE WOLVERINES
Utah Valley's offense has been its strength as it's hitting .269 and slugging .418 with a .343 OBP. Mitch Moralez is the big hitter with a team-high .388 batting average, .565 slugging and .427 on-base percentages. Trey Cutchen (.306), Mick Madsen (.302) and Paul Vossen (.299) are all hitting .299 or better, as well, while Spencer Olsen is hitting .400 in 45 at-bats.

The Wolverines' pitchers have an 6.47 ERA, 1.65 WHIP and .285 BAA on the year. Coop Rust (4.25 ERA), Mason Gray (6.11) and Devin Smith (.575) are the three pitchers who have made six starts or more this year. Josh Brown leads the team with four saves in 11 appearances to go with a 4.05 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and .194 BAA in 20 innings. Nick Sims is another effective reliever with two saves, a 1.98 ERA, 1.17 WHIP in 11 appearances and 27.1 innings.