The California Baptist baseball team won two of the games in its three-game series at New Mexico State over the weekend, and now Lancers coach Gary Adcock is hoping they can build on that momentum today against UC Riverside.

The contest is at 6:30 p.m. at the UCR Sports Complex. It’s the second of four intra-city matchups this season.

“We’re not accustomed to being where we’re at,” said Adcock, whose team is 16-16 overall after losing six of its last 10 games. The Lancers, in their first season of NCAA postseason eligibility, are 9-6 in the Western Athletic Conference.

“We’re usually leading the WAC in batting average and (earned-run average), but now we’re just trying to gain back our footing,” Adcock said. “It’s been a little bit of a struggle, and I say that as we sit here .500 with a lot of games to go.”

The Lancers’ batters are second in the WAC in strikeouts and their pitchers lead the conference in walks and wild pitches.

Adcock says the only answer to their struggles is to put in more work.

“We’re in the corner and trying to fight our way out of it,” he said. “We’re working hard in practice so it won’t be for lack of trying or desire.”

CBU swept a three-game series from UC Riverside on the last weekend of the 2022 regular season, with the Lancers mashing the Highlanders 21-1 on the final day.

This year, the Lancers and Highlanders (6-21) have scheduled four games interspersed throughout the season.

Adcock said “the wacky WAC” made it tough to schedule a block of games against Riverside, so the two schools opted to play four individual mid-week games.

“It’s maybe not as appealing,” he said. “You could throw the same pitchers four times, but anytime we play those guys it’s good.”

CBU’s Mitchell Simon has built upon his strong junior season with even more impressive power numbers. He’s batting .323 and leads the team with 13 doubles, 12 home runs and 35 RBIs.

Michael Carpentier (.318 BA, 41 hits), Garrett Ostrander (.376 BA, .473 OBP) and Julian Alvarez (.296 BA, 14 SBs) also are having an impact on offense, but it’s the Lancers’ other hitters that have Adcock’s attention.

“Simon and Carpentier are having solid seasons so now we need the guys down the order to start picking it up. There hasn’t been enough hard contact with two strikes,” Adcock said.

Liam Rocha (4-0, 3.05 ERA) has proven to be a front-line starter, but it’s the up-and-down performances from others on the pitching staff that isn’t sitting well with CBU’s skipper.

“We’ve had a lot of inconsistency on the mound. It’s hard to win games when you’re allowing a bunch of free bases,” Adcock said.

In the first meeting this season, UC Riverside scored four runs in the fourth inning to take the lead en route to an 8-2 win. All four CBU pitchers allowed at least two hits and a run.

Aluesi wins three events at Mt. SAC

Riverside City College sophomore Donal Aluesi dominated the field to take home three gold medals as Riverside City College’s track and field team totaled nine golds at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays on Saturday.

Aluesi, a Fontana High graduate, cruised to wins in the discus (161 feet, 9 inches), hammer throw (174-6) and shot put (51-11.25). He was followed by Vista Murrieta grad Edward Ta’amilo, who earned silver medals in discus (157 feet) and shot put (51-31.5).

Darius Hill (Vista Murrieta) won golds in long jump (24-5) and high jump (6-8.75), Ernesto Ruiz (Norte Vista) claimed gold in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (9 minutes, 37.37 seconds) and 5,000 (15:20.95).

In the men’s 1,500, Kyle Reden (Great Oak) was the only runner to finish in less than 4 minutes, snapping the tape first to win in 3:57.56 for Riverside, which participates in the Azusa Pacific Invite beginning Wednesday.

SBVC snaps Chaffey’s long winning streak

Juan Ramirez’s two-run single in the seventh inning — his third hit of the day —broke a 4-4 tie to lead San Bernardino Valley College’s baseball team to an 8-5 win Saturday that snapped Chaffey’s 15-game unbeaten streak.

Cy Roberton had two hits, walked twice and scored four runs for SBVC (12-18 overall, 5-9 Inland Empire Athletic Conference), which lost three of four to Chaffey this season.

Jacob Billings, Michael Woodward, Eric Valdivia and Brock Mayer each had two hits for Chaffey (20-10, 15-1) as it lost for the first time since Feb. 22.

Thompson’s blast earns CMS win

Abby Thompson hit an opposite-field home run to break a tie and give Claremont-Mudd-Scripps’ softball team a 2-1 victory over La Verne on Saturday.

The Upland High graduate had a stellar freshman season in 2022, batting .396 with four home runs and 26 RBIs in 32 games. This year, Thompson has been moved up in the lineup and has 21 RBIs with just eight strikeouts this season.

CMS (18-8 overall) hosts Whittier at 3 p.m. Friday at Athena Field in the first of a three-game series.