California Baptist University baseball wrapped up the first week of the Western Athletic Conference season and its series with Grand Canyon Sunday, March 6. When the dust settled, the Lopes walked away with a 19-3Â victory in their final game of the weekend at Totman Stadium, where they swept all three games.
After just three innings of play, GCU jumped out to an 11-0 lead before CBU got on the board in the bottom of the third after a double from Harrison Spohn and an RBI single for Chad Castillo. Two more Lopes’ runs were tacked on in the fifth, but CBU got them back in the sixth to make it 13-3. Those Lancer runs came home on a double from Ulises Caballero and a Russell Stevenson single. Grand Canyon added six more runs in the seventh to preserve the run-rule victory.
Despite the loss, CBU collected eight hits in the game, led by a team-high two hits and run batted in from Stevenson. Castillo and Caballero also drove in runs in the game, while Spohn and Caballero both doubled. Jake Skipworth also had a hit in the game to give him a 10-game hitting streak this season.
Ryan Delgado was CBU’s standout pitcher as he threw a shutout inning in relief, giving up one hit and striking out a batter. The loss moved CBU to 7-3 overall and 0-3 in the WAC this season. GCU are the defending WAC Tournament champions and improved to 7-4 and 3-0 in conference play.
The Lancers will play their first road games this week, starting with a mid-week game when they visit CSU Bakersfield at Hardt Field on Tuesday, March 8. CBU will then head to Orem to take on Utah Valley in WAC action Friday through Sunday, March 11-13.
JP Raineri can be reached by email at sports@reedermedia.com.
