Box Score

Oakland, CA -- In a game that snuck in between periods of steady rainfall, the Academy of Art University baseball team had all the pieces for a good game except that one big hit, coming up just short in a couple different situations and making some mental mistakes that led to runs for visiting California Baptist. However, the Lancers were able to cash in on their opportunities, putting the Knights in a hole and coming away with an 11-0 victory.

Nate Gercken got the start in the series opener, and continued his solid start to the season. He set down the Lancers in the first and second, and gave up a pair of runs in the third and fourth, both unearned. The first came when Andy Crowley reached on an error and later scored on a double by Antonio Chaverria, while the second came when Kalani Brackenridge mishandled a feed from Gercken that could have led to an inning-ending double play, which set up a run scoring fielder's choice from Crowley again.

Meanwhile, the Urban Knights ran into some opposition getting runners around. Leadoff man Tino Leite reached to start the first, but was doubled up on a sharp line drive from Brackenridge. The Knights got runners in scoring position with less than two outs in the third but couldn't cash in, and were the victims of another twin killing in the fourth to end another threat.

The Lancers scored a pair in the sixth, this time using the power that they established last season in their first appearance in the PacWest. After Gercken struck out the leadoff batter, Zach Esquerra homered to deep right-center field to make it a 3-0 game. Blair Moore followed that with a booming double, and Matt Daugherty singled up the middle to make it 4-0. But Gercken completed the inning and got two outs in the seventh to put in his longest outing of the year, logging 6.2 innings with five strikeouts and only two earned runs,

Those two earned runs were all the Lancers would need, however. The Urban Knights had the bases loaded with nobody out in the bottom of the seventh, but a strikeout and a double play wiped the slate and the Lancers kept the lead. CBU dinged Yoshi Uemura for three runs in the eighth, with Crowley adding his second RBI of the day. In the bottom of the inning, ART U loaded the bases again, this time with two outs, but Myles Babitt was picked off at first to end the threat.

California Baptist added four more runs in the ninth off of freshman Kai Fink to put the game out of reach, but the Knights had one more chance to put a run on the board. With two runners on and nobody out, Kevin Decker's sacrifice attempt went awry. Dante Redhead hit a slow chopper to second that allowed the runners to advance to second and third, but a fly ball down the right field line by Wade Broadstreet was tracked down by Esquerra to end the game, leaving the Knights with a total of eight runners left on base.

Henderson had three hits on the night for Academy of Art. Babitt, Ramirez, and Joey Marchini also added hits for ART U. Esquerra, Moore, and Daugherty all had multi-hit games for the Lancers. The two teams will meet up for the second game of the series on Friday at 1:00 PM, with the series ending on Saturday with a seven-and-seven doubleheader.