Lancers Finalize 2024 Campaign in Mesa

Saturday, May 25

Mesa, AZ.

3:05 PM

California Baptist University

39-24

#5 Tarleton State University

31-29

Cal Baptist

Tarleton State

Lancers Finalize 2024 Campaign in Mesa

5/25/2024 10:05:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

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

MESA, AZ--- The California Baptist baseball program concluded its 2024 campaign on Saturday evening after splitting the championship games at the Western Athletic Conference Tournament. After taking down Tarleton 8-4 and handing them their first loss of the week, the Lancers fell in the second game of the day to dominate pitching by the Texan staff.

It was a bittersweet ending to the season for California Baptist after making it out of the loser's bracket and punching a ticket to the program's first WAC Tournament Championship after being named the four-seed. CBU won four games in a row in three days to achieve the historic weekend in Mesa, Arizona and took down the two, three, and seven seeds along the way. The Lancers finish their season 38-24 and improve to 4-3 in postseason play.

The first game of the day was all aces for California Baptist after jumping out to a four-run lead in the first inning. The Lancers continued the momentum in the third inning after tallying a trio of runs to extend the lead 7-0 while keeping the Texans scoreless until the sixth. Ryan Delgado had one of his best performances of the season after going 7.1 innings and allowing just seven hits while sitting down five behind a tournament record of 117 pitches in a single outing. Tarleton finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth with a lone run and then did it again in the seventh before Mitchel Simon brought in the final run for CBU with an RBI single. The Texans built a little more momentum in the bottom of the eighth with a pair of runs, but it ultimately was not enough for a complete comeback.

With the first win of the day under their belts, California Baptist forced the "if necessary" game due to it being Tarelton's first loss of the week. The Texans came out hot right from the get-go and struck first with a 1-0 lead. Tarleton would put up their biggest inning of the day in the top of the third with four runs to go ahead by five. After snagging another single run in the fourth, Nathan Hemmerling and Cody New combined for three scoreless innings. The Lancer's offense struggled during the second game of the day and was unable to find a hit until the bottom of the sixth after Jake Brown knocked a double. Unfortunately, CBU was unable to string together a comeback and was held to four hits with a lone run. The Texans pulled together nine runs and 17 hits against the Lancer pitching staff and secured their first WAC Tournament Championship. Due to still being a transitioning DI, the Texans are ineligible to compete in the NCAA Baseball Tournament, and the WAC bid will automatically go to regular season conference champions, Grand Canyon.

Nicholas Dumesnil ends the year as the offensive lead for California Baptist behind a .362 batting average after appearing in 62 games this season. The sophomore ends the season with 19 home runs, 45 RBI, and 85 hits. It was a record-breaking year for senior Mitchel Simon after he penned his name in permanent ink in the record books with the all-time single-season home run record and the all-time career home run record. The third baseman ended his senior season with 24 homers and 74 hits.

On the pitching side, Lukas Pirko had a dominant freshman season and led the Lancers with a 3.84 ERA. The first year went 5-3 across nearly 73 innings and led the team with 76 strikeouts during his debut season.