RIVERSIDE--- California Baptist baseball secured its first game of the weekend series over the University of the Pacific on Friday evening with a 5-1 win over the Tigers. The non-conference win over the West Coast Conference squad improves the Lancer's season record to 19-15 this year and marks the fifth time in program history that CBU has beaten the Tigers.
After a scoreless inning on both sides, Bubba Rocha would put the Lancers on the board with a sacrifice fly to right field for the first run of the evening before Julian Alvarez's sacrifice bunt scored another run in the bottom of the third. The runs continued to dribble in for CBU after a 434-foot home run from Nicholas Dumesnil added to the lead. Pacific would ultimately find their way onto the board with their own sac fly at the top of the fifth, which was swiftly met with a solo shot from Andrew Walters to keep the three-run lead alive.
The story of the night came from the Lancer defense, who gave up no hits until the top of the eighth inning. Despite a Tiger drilling a ball to left field that had the distance on it, Dumesnil lept up and made a stunning catch over the wall to rob Pacific of a home run in the top of the sixth. Both Cody New and Andrew Rudd combined for just three hits on the evening, paired with eight strikeouts and one earned run. The last time the Lancers tossed a no-hitter was in 2017 during the Division II era, and they have yet to throw one in DI.
CBU will look to secure the series on Saturday night at 5 p.m. as they welcome back the University of the Pacific to Totman Stadium for the second game of the series.
