Lancers Finish Season at Inaugural WAC Tournament

Wednesday, May 24

Mesa, AZ

12:00 PM

California Baptist University

28-30

UT Arlington

27-28

UTA

CBU

Lancers Finish Season at Inaugural WAC Tournament

5/24/2023 4:30:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Mariah Rodriguez, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications and Digital Media

MESA, AZ— The Lancers returned to Hohokam Stadium on Wednesday afternoon to face off against UT Arlington in their second game of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament. CBU earned an early two-run lead, but the Mavericks tallied three multiple-run innings that solidified their 8-4 victory. California Baptist closes their season 28-30 overall in Mesa, Arizona.

After Michael Carpentier brought in the first run of the game with a sacrifice fly, Mitchel Simon cleaned up the first inning with his 21^st double of the season that gave the Lancers a two-run lead. UTA answered with three runs of their own to snag the lead in the top of the second. Simon delivered the game-tying run in the bottom of the fifth with his 19^th home run of the season, tying Dustin Garcia for the CBU Division I Era single-season home run record.

𝐒𝐈𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐆𝐎𝐄𝐒 𝐘𝐀𝐑𝐃🚨

Mitchel Simon launches a solo homer 396 feet and ties the game at 3 in the fifth💣#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/Eumyc6rxXG
— California Baptist Baseball (@CBUbaseball) May 24, 2023

The Mavericks answered again with a triple in the sixth and tallied a pair of runs to retake the lead by two. UTA put up another three runs in the top of the ninth to ensure the win to keep themselves alive in tournament play. Liam Rocha threw his 100^th strikeout of the year in the first inning against UTA, shattering the CBU Division I Era single-season strikeout record.

𝐌𝐑.💯

Liam Rocha throws his 100th K of the year and shatters CBU's Division I Era strikeout record in the first inning against UTA💪#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/97mgzvXF7Q
— California Baptist Baseball (@CBUbaseball) May 24, 2023

Garret Ostrander ended the year as California Baptist's lead hitter and earned a spot on the WAC All-Defensive team after his solid season from left field. The junior had a breakout season with seven doubles and 24 RBI, earning a .364 batting average. Rocha dominated from the mound this season and ended with a 3.39 ERA, as well as a CBU Division 1 Era single-season strikeout record at 103. After tallying three WAC Pitcher of the Week honors, the right-handed pitcher was named to the DI Baseball top 100 starting pitchers list and was selected as the WAC Pitcher of the Year.

The Lancers finished 15-15 in conference play and earned a berth to their first Division I postseason, snagging the eighth seed in their inaugural Western Athletic Conference Tournament. Significant nonconference wins this season included a 2-1 series win over Power 5 Oklahoma during the preseason and against UCSB at home when they were ranked #9 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.

Gary Adcock ends his 20^th season with 695 wins during his tenure with CBU, earning 25 All-WAC team awards and five major WAC awards in the last five seasons.