The Riverside Press-Enterprise
California Baptist baseball coach Adcock secures 700th career win
Down early, the California Baptist University baseball team put on a show.
Jake Brown finished off a comeback with a two-run double in the ninth inning as the Lancers secured a crosstown showdown series victory over UC Riverside with a 10-8 win on Sunday at the UCR Sports Complex.
Nicolas Dumensil went 3 for 4 with a home run, two RBIS and two runs scored for CBU (5-3 overall), which erased a seven-run deficit to earn head coach Gary Adcock his 700th career coaching victory.
“We gave up a touchdown in the first inning, which is alarming, but as coaches we were going up-anddown the dugout preaching, ‘Let’s get it to within two runs,’ and when we did that in the fifth then it became, ‘Let’s tie it up,’” Adcock said. “We just tried to win innings, and we were able to do that.”
CBU came into the crosstown showdown on the back of a 25-4 victory over Pepperdine at home on Feb. 18, but dropped the first game of the series 3-0 against some stout pitching.
“UCR’S pitcher in the first one (Julian Orozco) was really, really good,” Adcock said. “What a silly game we play. You can score 25 runs in the previous game and score in every inning, and the very next game, get dominated.”
The Lancers compiled 28 runs over the next three days against UC Riverside and now have won three consecutive and six of their past seven against the Highlanders.
UC Riverside’s Tyler Weaver went 4 for 4 with a home run, a triple, three RBIS and two runs on Sunday, but it wasn’t enough for the Highlanders (3-5), who received a sterling performance from Orozco in Game 1 (6 1/3 IP, 2 H, 9 K) but were beaten 12-3 on Friday and 6-2 on Saturday.
“(Weaver) hit the ball well all weekend. He hit the fastball, he hit the breaking ball, he hit the curveball, he hit the changeup,” Adcock said.
CBU rallied when Mitchel Simon and Josh Paino smacked back-toback home runs in the fifth inning to get within two runs, and the Lancers tied the game at 7-7 in the sixth with RBI singles by Gunnar Antillon and Michael Carpentier.
UCR retook the lead in the eighth on Tyler Martinez’s RBI single, but CBU put a pair of runners on base in the ninth for Brown, who laced a two-run double into the left-center field gap before scoring on a hit from Garret Ostrander.
Ryan Hetzler got two outs in the eighth to earn his first win of the season, and Ryne Palmer got the final out of the game to earn the save for CBU, which welcomes UC Davis into James W. Totman Stadium for a four-game series starting Friday.
UC Riverside tagged CBU starter Seth Mattox for seven runs on five hits, with Weaver capping the opening frame with a three-run homer to left field.
Cole Koniarsky and Jayden Lopez added two hits and an RBI apiece, but Alfredo Capacete pitched the final 3 1/3 innings and took the loss for UC Riverside, which hosted San Diego State at The Plex on Tuesday before playing a three-game series against Pepperdine this weekend.
CCAA basketball
Cal State San Bernardino’s Coussoulis Arena will host both of the California Collegiate Athletic Association men’s and women’s basketball tournaments on March 7-9.
CSUSB is the defending men’s tournament champion and one of five teams currently qualified for the tournament. The Yotes (21-6 overall, 16-5 CCAA) will be joined by CSU Dominguez Hills, Chico State, Cal State L.A. and Cal State East Bay, with one spot still up for grabs.
The CSUSB women’s team has a shot to make the tournament for the first time in several years. The Yotes (14-12, 12-9) are 5-1 since Feb. 8 with one regular game remaining at Cal Poly Pomona on Thursday.
The CCAA tournament champions receive automatic berths into the NCAA Division II tournament.
Frank Applebaum won the 200-meter butterfly final for the third consecutive year to lead the Claremont-mudd-scripps men’s swimming team to its fourth straight Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title Sunday at East Los Angeles College.
Anderson Breazeale (200 backstroke) and Lucas Lang (1,650 freestyle) also won their third SCIAC titles, respectively, as the Stags (964.5 points) finished nearly 70 points ahead of Pomona-pitzer (895).
Applebaum, the SCIAC Athlete of the Year, capped his week by setting a new meet record (1 minute, 45.75 seconds) in the 200 butterfly. He is the two-time defending NCAA Division III champion in the event.
Miscellany
UC Riverside senior forward Kyle Owens scored his 1,000th collegiate point in the Highlanders’ 84-78 men’s basketball victory Saturday over Cal Poly . ... San Bernardino Valley College sophomore infielder Jason Del Villar went 6 for 12 with a double, a triple, four home runs and 13 RBIS in three games from Feb. 13-17 . ... CBU’S swimming team competes at the Western Athletic Conference finals at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley starting on Wednesday. … CBU’S women’s basketball team is percentage points behind Grand Canyon for the lead in the Western Athletic Conference. The Lancers (22-3, 14-2) travel to Texas for two games this week: Thursday against third-place Stephen F. Austin (12-4) in Nacogdoches, and Saturday against UT Rio Grand Valley in Edinburg. The Lancers men, losers of six of their last seven, play host to those two Texas programs at the Fowler Events Center this week with games Thursday against Stephen F. Austin at 7 p.m., and UTRGV on Saturday at 5 p.m . ... The UC Riverside men’s basketball team, winners of five of six, plays host to Hawaii on Saturday at 5 p.m. at SRC Arena. The Highlanders’ women, winners of four in a row and six of seven, travel to play at Hawaii on Saturday at 9 p.m.