COLORADO SPRINGS – Chad Castillo made history as he hit for the cycle to lead California Baptist University baseball to a 21-4 win over Air Force in game two of the series on Saturday at Falcon Field.
Overall, CBU had a season-high 23 hits on the day. It was the third time the Lancers have scored 20 runs this year. Castillo finished up 4-for-7 with a career-high six runs batted in and three runs scored for the first cycle in the Lancers' NCAA era. It's the first cycle for CBU since Mike Swain did it against Westmont on April 23, 2006.
It was far from a one-man show on Saturday, though, as
David Martin (three RBI, two runs) and
Harrison Spohn (three runs, two RBI, double) also had four hits on the day.
Michael Carpentier (two RBI, two runs) and
Jake Skipworth (three runs, double) also had three hits, while
Josh Paino (two runs, double) had a pair.
The Lancers improve to 21-8 this season and end Air Force's four-game winning streak, as the Falcons fall to 13-16. The series finale will be played Sunday at 11 a.m. Pacific.
Brandon Downer continued his impressive true freshman season and improved to 4-0 on the mound. He held Air Force to five hits, one walk and four runs and struck out three over 6.1 innings.
Seth Mattox closed out the game in relief with 2.2 innings of scoreless.
PLAY-BY-PLAY
Castillo's cycle was completed backwards, as he hit a three-run homer in the first inning, a two-run triple in the second, a double in the third and a single in the fifth.
CBU's offense set the tone right away with nine runs in the first two innings. The Lancers scored four in the first with a Carpentier RBI single adding to Castillo's three-run shot.
Air Force got a run back in the bottom of the first, but California Baptist scored five more times in the second inning. The Lancers got RBI singles from Spohn and Skipworth, a two-run triple from Castillo and RBI double from
Russell Stevenson.
Castillo's RBI double in the third inning gave CBU a 10-1 lead, but the Falcons scored three runs of their own in the bottom of the third. The Lancers would score 11-straight runs to end the game, with a two-run
Mitchel Simon homer and pinch-hit RBI double from
Trevor Cadd highlighting the action.