Lancers Win The Night On The Back of Solid Pitching and Timely Hitting

Thursday, May 9

Seattle, WA

10 AM

California Baptist University

30-24

No. 3 Utah Valley

25-26

Utah Valley

California Baptist

Photo by: Western Athletic Conference

Lancers Win The Night On The Back of Solid Pitching and Timely Hitting

5/9/2024 10:00:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Daniel Cook, Director of Athletics Communications & Digital Media

SEATTLE - The California Baptist University softball team began their portion of the Western Athletic Conference tournament on Thursday. Despite a stumble in game one and losing 3-1 to Utah Valley, they rebounded well in game number two of the day and defeated Southern Utah 4-1 to stay in contention. The win over the Thunderbirds was just CBU's second postseason win in the Division I era, as they've only been allowed to compete in the conference postseason since last year. Today's results set up a win-or-go-home contest with UT Arlington on Friday afternoon.

GAME ONE: #2 CBU 1 - #3 UVU 3

The opening contest for CBU in the 2024 WAC Tournament pitted the two-seed Lancers against the three-seed Wolverines of Utah Valley. It was the second game in the tournament for UVU after they took down UT Arlington 2-1 in extra innings on Wednesday.

Presley Hosick started strong in the circle for CBU, going 5.2 innings and matching her season-high with six strikeouts. Her batters had her back and got the Lancers on the board first.

With Priscilla Estrada on third and Kayla Lyon on first, the co-leader in home runs this season, Kalena Burns, came up to the plate with one out. The power hitter took a first-pitch strike and then took the infield by surprise by laying down her first bunt this season. Estrada got a significant jump from third, avoided the tag at home, and scored to give CBU a 1-0 lead.

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Unfortunately, the Lancers would load the bases after that but could not capitalize on the opportunity. The Wolverines would answer quickly, scoring two in the fifth and one more insurance run in the sixth.

Hosick would be saddled with the three earned and move to 12-6 on the season. Morgan McConnell closed out the final 1.1 innings, holding UVU to just one hit during that stretch.

The loss pushed CBU into the consolation bracket, setting up a second Thursday game against Southern Utah.

GAME TWO: #2 CBU 4 - #8 SUU 1

The day's second game went more to script for the Lancers. CBU opened with a show of offensive strength, posting three runs on the Thunderbirds starter, forcing her out of the game before the end of the inning. The scoring started with a two-RBI double from Kayla Lyon, who scored Estrada and Merissa Borkowski. That was followed two batters later by Sydney Soto pushing one up the middle, scoring Lyon from third.

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The 'Birds would get one plated in the second to erase their goosegg and close the gap by one. After the scoreline became 3-1, the game was packed full of near misses that showed up in the box score as nine hits and 12 runners stranded. CBU posted an electric insurance run in the sixth as Estrada punched her third career triple past the SUU centerfielder, scoring Borkowski from first and sealing the winning scoreline.

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CBU's pitching duo stayed the same but flipped in game two as McConnell got the starting nod. She earned her ninth win of the season via five hits and no free passes in five innings of work. Hosick, the conference leader in saves this season with five, came in for a two-inning save where she allowed no hits and faced just one over the minimum on her way to sending Southern Utah back to Cedar City.

The Lancers learned at about 9:30 p.m. that they would face the Mustangs of UT Arlington on Friday. UTA used a huge fifth inning to overtake host Seattle U and held on to win 7-6 against the Redhawks. The Lancers and Mustangs will face off at 4:00 p.m., with the winner playing a second game at 7:00 p.m. against the loser of Grand Canyon/Utah Valley to earn their way into Saturday's championship round.