RIVERSIDE--- The California Baptist baseball program dropped the series versus Grand Canyon on Saturday evening, falling 11-5 to the Lopes. The Saturday evening game marks the first Western Athletic Conference series loss of the season for the Lancers, dropping CBU to 4-4 in conference play and 17-14 on the year.
Grand Canyon jumped out to another fast start, knocking a pair of homers for three runs. CBU answered in the bottom of the second with a lone run before putting three on the board in the fourth with their first lead of the weekend. The three runs were courtesy of Andrew Walters' two-run bomb before a double from Bubba Rocha brought in Chris Ramirez. A solo shot from Ben Castelli gave CBU a 5-3 lead heading into the seventh before the Lancer's pitching staff began to struggle.
A three-run home run from the Lopes in the top of the seventh returned the lead to the visiting team before five more runs came across home plate in the final two innings. CBU gave up six free passes to GCU from the mound while only striking out four. Rocha posted a terrific individual outing, going three-for-five at the plate with one RBI. Both Jake Brown and Walters posted two hits for the Lancers, bringing CBU's total hits to 11. Andrew Rudd earned the start against the Lopes and had a solid 5.1 innings, posting three strikeouts and four hits.
California Baptist will close out the series on Sunday afternoon and will be on the hunt for a win over GCU to salvage the weekend affair.
