Monday Night Comeback Falls Short for CBU in Long Beach

Monday, May 13

Long Beach, CA

6:00 PM

California Baptist University

30-23

Long Beach State University

23-25-1

California Baptist

Long Beach State

Monday Night Comeback Falls Short for CBU in Long Beach

5/13/2024 11:00:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

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

LONG BEACH, CA--- The California Baptist baseball program headed to the coast on Monday evening for the squad's final midweek non-conference contest of the season and fell to California State Long Beach 9-7. The Lancer's comeback fell short in the eighth inning after falling behind the Dirtbags and CBU moves to 32-21 on the season, while posting a final non-conference record of 16-10.

The midweek match-up started quiet for both sides after a pair of scoreless innings, but the home team broke open the game in the bottom of the third with a two-RBI single for an early lead. The Lancers answered immediately in the following inning after Connor McGuire put a pair on the board with a well-placed single to knot the score 2-2. Julian Alvarez stepped into the game as a pinch hitter and did his job well, hitting a sacrifice fly to score another run to give CBU the lead.

We 🫶 three-run innings!#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/9YnpjxwaHA
— California Baptist Baseball (@CBUbaseball) May 14, 2024

Things took a turn for the Lancers in the fourth inning after securing two outs as an error on a dropped foul ball extended the inning for Long Beach, and the 'Bags were able to rally for four runs to retake the lead. The home team dribbled in a few more runs during the sixth and seventh innings to go ahead 9-3, but CBU did not go down quietly. The Lancers made things interesting in the top of the eighth after Ryan Kim opened the inning with a lead-off single and ultimately came home after Matthew Darr knocked a single up the middle. A two-RBI single from Alvarez secured another pair of runs for CBU, but Long Beach finally found their footing and struck out a Lancer while forcing a fly out to center field to end the inning. Kim returned in the top of the ninth and launched a deep home run over left field but the comeback was ultimately squashed by Long Beach to even the season series 1-1.

RYAN KIM GOES YARD🚀#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/Rdy2cpg1Bn
— California Baptist Baseball (@CBUbaseball) May 14, 2024

The Lancers faired well against Big West competition this season and ended with an 8-4 final record after picking up wins against Bakersfield, UC Riverside, Long Beach, and CSUN. CBU will now turn its attention to the final weekend of Western Athletic Conference play that begins on Thursday evening against Utah Tech in the Beehive State.