Box Score
Riverside, CA - The Urban Knights were clawing their way one run at a time back into Thursday afternoon's game against PacWest newcomer Cal Baptist, but a late grand slam by Lancers cleanup hitter Blair Moore gave the home team all the advantage they would need as they won the first ever matchup between these two teams, 8-3.
"We played well. We're looking more and more like a solid baseball team," said head coach Brian Guinn. "It was a game of a couple mistakes and we just came out on the wrong end of it. We're getting to the point where we're getting really good."
After a shaky first inning, Urban Knights starter
Zach Mexicano settled into a bit of a rhythm, and even when he got into trouble, he found himself getting out of it for the most part unscathed. On the other side of the ball, the ART U offense was slowly but surely chipping away at the Cal Baptist lead, making starter Patrick Smith work very hard to preserve the three-run advantage he had after the first inning.
"I thought he pitched well," Guinn said. "He put himself in position to win a game and he made a couple bad pitches that came back to haunt him a little bit. But he's coming around."
The Knights struck first, as
Johnathan Robbins walked to lead off the game.
Niko Leite continued his impressive run to start the season with yet another extra-base hit, mashing a double to left field, advancing Robbins to third.
Zach Babitt popped out to second, but
Kenny Rollins, Jr. grounded out to drive in the first run of the game. Leite finished the game 2-for-5, including his fourth extra-base hit of the year. He currently leads the Knights with a .714 slugging percentage.
"Niko's getting off to a better start than last year," said Guinn "He's got his timing down. He's an aggressive hitter who's getting into hitters counts. It just shows how hard he worked in the offseason to get here."
Mexicano had trouble in the first inning, even after striking out the leadoff batter. The next batter, Matt Marnati, walked, and second-baseman Kevin Odom doubled, with Marnati going to third. Mexicano then threw one to the backstop, allowing Marnati to score. Mexicano walked Moore, and then Matt Daugherty singled in Odom to give the Lancers a 2-1 lead. Both runners moved up when Mexicano balked, and then catcher Cole Bullard drew another walk. The ART U southpaw rebounded to strike out Zach Esquerra, but then walked two runs in to end the first inning with five walks, a balk, and a wild pitch. But the Knights (0-5, 0-5 PWC) still came out of it only trailing by three.
ART U added another run in the bottom of the second inning as
Wade Broadstreet doubled with two outs and came in on a triple by
Stefen Henderson, the team's fifth triple already this year. After that all was quiet on both sides. Mexicano retired the next six Lancers, including a nine-pitch inning in the bottom of the second. He worked himself in and out of trouble in the fourth, when Luke Esquerra singled to lead off, advancing to second when Ryan Cathers walked. The Knights then pulled off a huge double play, as a ground ball to Rollins at third got the first two lead runners out, with a chance at a triple play. Marnati singled, and then Mexicano hit Odom, loading the bases, before Moore flied out to end the threat, with the Lancers still ahead 4-2.
Both teams went three up, three down in the fifth, and the Knights had a chance to pull even with runners on second and third with only one out. But on a 2-0 pitch, catcher
James Singzon flied into a pivotal double play, with right-fielder Zach Esquerra nailing Babitt at home to end the inning, taking Smith off the hook for CBU. He would end the game giving up eight hits, but finished with 10 strikeouts for Cal Baptist (6-3, 4-1 PWC).
Mexicano was not so lucky in the bottom of the sixth, as he came two strikes away from wriggling out of another jam. Luke Esquerra singled to right, advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt. He hit Matt Johnson, but then Marnati grounded out to first to make it two on, two out. The lefty then walked Odom, and Moore came up with the bases loaded and two outs again. This time the cleanup hitter didn't leave them loaded, but instead cleared the bases, sending an 0-1 pitch over the fence for a grand slam to make it a six-run game with nine outs to play.
"They've got some guys on the team that can swing the bat pretty well," said Coach Guinn. "Their park is hitter friendly, which works in their favor. They're a solid baseball team, and we'll be seeing more of them."
The Knights got two hits in the top of the seventh, but were unable to bring anyone around.
Jared DePatto went deep with two outs in the eighth to give the Knights their first home run of the year, cutting the margin to 8-3, but that proved to be the final score as ART U was unable to break through against the Lancers bullpen.
Spencer Roland came in and pitched two innings of scoreless relief to finish the game on the mound for the Knights.
