By: Mariah Rodriguez, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications and Digital Media
Box Score
RIVERSIDE--- It was a crowded day at Totman Stadium as the California Baptist baseball team played the second installment of the weekend series against the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley, and celebrated their 12-man senior class. The Lancers picked up an 11-4 win behind five home runs from four different players, improving CBU's overall record to 32-19 and the conference record to 16-10.
Nicholas Dumesnil got things started during his first at-bat and knocked his 16th home run of the season off the first pitch he saw. The sophomore outfielder did it again in the bottom of the third, launching his second homer of the day to give the Lancers an early 2-0 lead. Julian Alvarez, Connor McGuire, and Cole Howarth would all connect with the bat for a home run, pushing the team's total dinger count to 84 for a program record after surpassing the previous highest total at 82 from the 2022 squad.
CBU headed into the seventh inning with a 4-0 lead, but a high-scoring inning from the Vaqueros would knot the game after a pair of singles, a solo homer, and a sacrifice fly drove in four runs for the away team. Josh Paino led the attack in the bottom of the inning with an RBI single to retake the lead, and the Lancers kept it going, ultimately putting up four runs in retaliation. CBU tacked on a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth to ensure the win after Mitchel Simon doubled and Michael Carpentier knocked a sacrifice fly for the final run of the game.
Brandon Downer picked up his sixth pitching win of the weekend after tossing a solid Saturday night game, allowing just a pair of runs and walking just one Vaquero through six innings of work. Dumesnil led the Lancers offensively again after going three for four at the plate with a pair of homers and a single.
The second win of the weekend pushes CBU into third place in the Western Athletic Conference standings and puts the Lancers in a good position heading into the final week of conference play. California Baptist will return to Totman Stadium for its final home game of the season on Sunday at Noon.
