RIVERSIDE--- The California Baptist Baseball program welcomed both the University of Utah and Pepperdine University on Sunday afternoon to close out the Opening Weekend festivities at James W. Totman Stadium. The Lancers ultimately split the day, falling to the Utes 7-1 while dominating the Waves in a record-breaking 25-4 final line. Head Coach Gary Adcock's squad closes the first weekend of the season with an overall 2-2 record.
The Lancers opened the day with a rematch against Utah, after falling to the Power-5 program 9-4 in Malibu the day before. The Utes picked up right where they left off and came out of the gates swinging, snagging a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Utah continued to add to their lead, which was never relinquished, with a pair of runs in the third and four in the fourth. CBU did not go quietly as Jake Brown sent a ball over the left-field wall for the first Lancer home run at Totman Stadium this season in the seventh inning to put his team on the board. Ryan Hernandez and Ryne Palmer staved off the Utes through the final four innings with no runs, solidifying the final 7-1 line.
The second game of the day would go down in the history books as the CBU took on the Waves for the second time this weekend and came away with a 25-4 victory on their home turf. Eleven different Lancers crossed home plate on Sunday evening with 10 players adding one or more RBI to their season stats. Most notably, Garret Ostrander and Mitchel Simon notched four RBI each through the record-breaking game while Brown lofted his second home run of the day for a pair of RBI. Ostrander led the Lancers with four hits across six a-bats, while Michael Carpentier followed suit with three hits and a pair of RBI against the Waves. Six Lancers also added one or more doubles to their resume, as California Baptist tacked on a run in every single inning of the game.
Ostrander started the first at-bat of the evening strong with a single and was eventually sent home by Simon in the first inning for an early lead. Once they got going, the Lancers could not be stopped. The 1-0 lead was tied by Pepperdine in the top of the second, but CBU made quick work of the 1-1 scoreline and tallied four runs to retake the game. The Waves added another run in the third, but the Lancers tallied three runs in the bottom of the inning before tallying back-to-back four-run innings. Brown brought in two runs with his two-RBI homer in the sixth and Matthew Darr crossed home plate as the lone run in the seventh.
After bringing in another three runs, Simon would make history in the eighth inning after doubling to center field and adding another three runs for a total of six to push the Lancers to 25, shattering the original single-game NCAA-era record of 24 runs against Hawaii Hilo in 2012. The last time the Lancers scored more than 20 runs in a single game was in 2022 against Yale where they tallied a 23-1 win at home. California Baptist secured the largest margin of victory during Opening Weekend in the Western Athletic Conference with their 21-run win, with the next largest victory coming from Abilene Christian who tallied a pair of 10-run wins.
The Lancers are slated to face UC Riverside this coming weekend in the infamous Crosstown Showdown in a back-and-fourth series beginning on Thursday at Totman Stadium at 6 p.m.
