California Baptist University
UT Arlington
BASE Preview: Lancers Welcome UT Arlington to Totman Stadium
4/8/2026 12:05:00 PM | Baseball
RIVERSIDE--- The California Baptist baseball program returns to Riverside this weekend after being on the road for a week, snagging wins from Abilene Christian and Long Beach State. CBU bested ACU 2-1 in the opening series of Western Athletic Conference play, and then turned around to take down the Dirtbags in Long Beach 10-5 on Monday evening. The Lancers are currently 27-6 overall this season and sit at the top of the WAC standings with a 2-1 record.
UT Arlington enters the weekend with a conference series win under its belt after taking two of three from Tarleton State last weekend. The Mavericks then welcome Baylor to Clay Gould Ball Park and fell to the Bears 5-2 during the midweek affair. Arlington's victory over the Texans was a solid series win, their fourth of the season, and they now own an overall record of 13-18. The squad currently bats .250 as a team and boasts a 5.13 ERA, the fourth lowest in the conference. The Mavs have given up the second-most hits this season and dished out the second-least amount of walks.
Players to watch for the Texan team will be Xavier Melendez, who is currently batting .364 and leads the squad with 47 hits, and Caylon Dygert, UTA's pitching ace. Melendez has seven doubles and 25 RBI this season, boasting 14 multi-hit games this year as well. Dygert comes into the weekend with a 2.17 ERA, striking out 34 this year across 49.2 innings pitched. Dygert's ERA ranks third in the WAC behind Ethan Lay of Sacramento State and Michael Malki of CBU.
For California Baptist, Gary Adcock's squad has enjoyed an extremely successful season at both the plate and on the mound. CBU leads the WAC in both team batting average and team ERA. Additionally, the Lancers own the fourth-lowest ERA in the nation at 3.18. D1 Baseball recently ranked the Lancers seventh in the West, and the program has begun receiving votes in multiple Top-25 polls.
Cole Hansen tops the batting stats for the Lancers this week with a .433 and 45 hits this season, with that batting average sitting fifth in the nation. Bryce McFeely is also coming off a solid weekend for CBU, knocking two home runs against the Wildcats to lead the Lancers with 10 this season. From the mound, Michael Malki has found a groove in his ace role for Coach Adcock and leads the WAC with the lowest ERA at 2.11. The sophomore right-hander has dished out 61 strikeouts across 38.1 innings this season and allowed just nine earned runs on his account.
Friday's match-up versus the Mavericks will be the 11th meeting between these squads, as UTA owns the all-time record with six wins and four losses to the Lancers. The most recent game went CBU's way in Texas, where the Lancers secured the series with back-to-back wins.
This weekend's conference series will be streamed on ESPN+, and tickets are available for purchase here.
