Box Score

Riverside, CA - When facing an offense as potent as what Cal Baptist has shown so far in 2012, opposing pitchers have to be wary of the big inning and avoid it as much as possible. Unfortunately for the Urban Knights, the Lancers, who came into Friday's matchup averaging over 8.0 runs per game, found the big inning and found it twice more en route to a 22-0 game.

ART U starter Nate Gercken, who was fighting a stomach bug since arriving in Riverside, left only two batters into the game after he complained of dizziness, and freshman Yoshi Uemura did his best to slow down the Lancers, but the high-octane home team struck for five runs in the first and six runs in the second, including the second CBU grand slam in two days. Uemura pitched into the third inning and gave up a 2-RBI double before Kallen Fletcher took over with two runners on.

"We made mistakes early. We walked too many guys early," said head coach Brian Guinn. "Too many runners on base for them. We had to scramble there in the beginning with Nate going down, and we got burned."

Fletcher was a bright spot for Academy of Art, sitting down the first six batters he faced, and pitching three innings, giving up two runs on three hits in his first mound action of the season. Niko Leite came in and finished the game for ART U, but not before the Lancers struck again for seven more in the bottom of the eighth, highlighted by a three-run homer by Ryan Douglass.

"After the third the game was pretty much decided," Guinn said. "But we still have two games tomorrow, so we couldn't burn all of our pitchers. We had to put some guys in who don't usually pitch, and they did fairly well."

Cal Baptist's Jon Bengard took care of business on the mound, pitching six strong innings and striking out eight while only allowing three baserunners. Myles Babitt got his first start for the Urban Knights and got his first hit, but was promptly caught stealing with his brother Zach at the plate. Johnathan Robbins also got a hit in the third, but was erased on a double play by the ensuing batter. Lancers pitchers kept the Knights off the basepaths from then until the top of the ninth, when pinch-hitter Michael Reyes drew a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch.