SACRAMENTO – California Baptist University baseball is coming off its seventh series victory of the season and will look to add another this weekend at Sacramento State to strengthen its top-two standing in the Western Athletic Conference West Division.

The Lancers are coming off back-to-back wins over Utah Valley, which improved their record to 25-12 overall and 11-7 in the WAC. The Hornets are heating up, as they've won four of their last five games, including a series victory on the road at Dixie State.

Sacramento State is in third place in the WAC West Division with a 20-19 overall and 11-10 league record. Grand Canyon still leads the WAC West Division with a 15-3 league record, while Dixie State is not far off in fourth at 10-11.

POWER SURGE
CBU continues to flex its power, as it's coming off a five-homer game on Sunday and hit three more on Saturday. The Lancers have hit 18 home runs over the last nine games, with at least one homer eight times and six multi-homer performances in that span.

California Baptist has 57 home runs already this season, one off its NCAA Division I era record of 58 back in 2019. The Lancers have hit at least 60 home runs five times in the modern era, which dates back through the 2002 season, with a single-season high of 75 back in 2006 and 66 in 2013. CBU also hit 63 in 2018 and 61 in 2016 and 2010.

MARTIN MAKES HISTORY
David Martin extended his hitting streak to a program NCAA-era record 18 games, with hits in all three games last week. He kept it alive with hits in his final at-bat on Friday and Saturday against Utah Valley. Michael Carpentier became the fifth Lancer to piece together a 10-game hitting streak this season as he's now hit safely in 11-straight contests.

DOUBLE TROUBLE
Harrison Spohn has been a doubles machine for the Lancers, with 20 on the year, and is tied for second in NCAA Division I coming into the week. UNLV's Joey Walls ranks first with 22, while Austin Peay's Gino Avros also has 20, while five other players have 19.

Over his career, Spohn has 58 career doubles, which leads CBU's NCAA era by 10 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 100-48 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 107-56 in Division I seasons. Its win total is tied for 10th 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' 65.2 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 is third-ever series between CBU and Sacramento State, but the Lancers' first trip to Sacramento. The Hornets hold a 4-3 edge in the series, but last season's four-game series in Riverside was split evenly. Sacramento State won the first-ever series between these two in Riverside on March 29-31 in 2019.

SERIES INFORMATION
Opponent: Sacramento State
Date/Time: Friday, April 29 (6 p.m.); Saturday, April 30 (1 p.m.); Sunday, May 1 (12 p.m.)
Location: Sacramento, Calif. (John Smith Field)
Video: ESPN+: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
Live Stats: StatBroadcast: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
 
A LOOK AT THE HORNETS
Sacramento State made a statement early on this season when it started the season with 7-0 record and a three-game series sweep of then sixth-ranked Long Beach State in Long Beach. Since then, the Hornets have gone 13-19 and dropped series to Houston Baptist, Dixie State, Seattle U and Grand Canyon. The Hornets have been coming on strong of late, though, as they have five of their last seven and won back-to-back WAC series.
  
Coming into this week, Sacramento State is hitting .271 and slugging .438 on the season. There are five Hornets hitting above .285 on the year. Dawsen Bacho leads the group by hitting .356 and slugging .578 with a .454 on-base percentage.
 
Nick Iwasa (.310), Jorge Bojorguez (.304) and Cesar Valero (.300) give Sac State four players hitting .300 or better, while Steven Moretto also hits .286. Valero is the power threat with a .620 slugging and 13 home runs.
 
The pitching staff has a 5.90 earned-run average and .286 batting average against. Eli Saul and Colin Hunter have started a team-high 10 games on the mound, while Noah Lucchesi has made eight starts. Saul is the ace with a 3.40 ERA and 46 strikeouts in a team-high 55.2 innings. Hunter has logged a 4.59 ERA and 45 strikeouts to just 11 walks in 51 frames.
 
Sacramento State has a number of go-to arms in the bullpen, with seven pitchers logging at least 14 appearances, primarily in relief. Kevin Hayes has a team-high 19 appearances, while Max Pettey has 17. Jack Zalasky may be the best reliever with a 3.26 ERA and a bullpen high of 30.1 innings pitched. He's struck out 40 batters and issued just six walks in 15 outings.